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Frontisp'ufH 


Robert  Fulton. 


THE  LIFE 


OF 


ROBERT  FULTON 


AND  A 


History  of  Steam  ^^avigation 


BY 

THOMAS  W.  KNOX 

author  of 

"  The  Travels  of  Marco  Polo,"     The   Boy  Travellers  in  South  America," 
"  The  Boy  Travellers  in  the  Far  East,"  Five  Vols.  ;      The  Young 
NiMRODS,"  Two  Vols.  ;      The  Voyage  of  the  Vivian,"  Over- 
land through  Asia,"      Backsheesh,"  ''''  Underground," 
*'JoHN,"  "Camp-Fire  and  Cotton-Field,"  How 
TO  Travel,"  "  The  Pocket  Guide  Around 
THE  World,"  etc.,  etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW   YORK  LONDON 

27  west  twenty-third  street  24  BEDFORD  STREET,  STRAND 

^nicktrboclur  l^xm 
1900 


COPYRIGHT 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
1886 


Ubc  Tftnfcftevbochec  pvcss,  Iftcw  i?orl? 


PREFACE. 


IN  the  belief  that  a  history  of  steam  navigation, 
combined  with  a  biography  of  the  man  who 
^  designed  and  built  the  first  successful  steamboat, 
would  be  of  general  interest,  the  author  has  pre- 
pared this  volume.     He  has  avoided  the  use  of 
/  technical  terms  wherever  possible,   in  order  that 
the  work  might  prove  acceptable  to  youthful,  or 
;  non-scientific  readers,  as  well  as  to  those  with  whom 
steam  navigation  is  a  special  study. 

The  materials  for  the  life  of  the  inventor  have 
l/>  been  drawn  from  many  sources.    The  author  ac- 
"   knowledges  his  indebtness  to  the  biographies  of 
Fulton,  by  Golden,  Renwick,  and  Reigart,  to  Life 
and  Letters  of  Joel  Barlow,"  by  Charles  Burr  Todd, 
and  also  to  the  officers  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society,  for  the  use  of  records  in  their  possession. 
\K  In  the  history  of  steam  navigation,  he  has  been 
greatly  aided  by  the  work  of  Admiral  Preble  upon 
the  same  subject;  by  Professor  Thurston's  His- 
,   tory  of  the  growth  of  the  steam  engine,  "  Bourne's 
Catechism,"    King's    ''Practical  notes  for  Stu- 
2,  dents    and   Engineers,"  and   by   other  books  of 

iii 


iv 


PREFACE. 


similar  nature.  The  illustrations  referring  es- 
pecially to  Robert  Fulton,  are  mainly  reproduced 
from  Mr.  Reigart's  biography  ;  they  were  made 
originally  from  drawings  by  Fulton  and  now  in  the 
possession  of  his  descendants.  The  other  illustra- 
tions are  from  sources  which  are  a  guaranty  for 
their  accuracy. 

Hoping  for  a  favorable  reception  by  press  and 
public  the  author  submits  the  result  of  his  efforts 
for  their  examination. 

T.  W  K. 

New  York,  1886. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

The  Fulton  Family — Robert's  birth  and  birthplace — Incidents  of  his 
boyhood — Making  a  paddle-boat — Choice  of  an  occupation — Buys 
a  home  for  his  mother    ........  1-14 

CHAPTER  II. 

Fulton  goes  to  England — West's  patronage  and  friendship — Duke  of 
Bridgewater  and  Earl  Stanhope — West  and  his  works — Fulton  on 
canal  navigation — His  engineering  work  in  England — His  inven- 
tions— The  Erie  Canal  ........  15-34 

CHAPTER  III. 

Fulton  in  Paris — Joel  Barlow — Experiments  with  torpedoes — Diving- 
boats — Proposals  to  the  French  Government — The  reply — Official 
report  of  experiments — Holland  and  England — Blowing  up  the 
Dorothea  35-55 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Fulton  returns  to  America — Plans  for  torpedo  warfare — An  amusing  inci- 
dent at  a  lecture — Blowing  up  a  brig  at  anchor — Attack  upon  the 
sloop-of-war  Argus — Submarine  guns  and  their  execution — Devel- 
opment of  torpedo  warfare  from  Fulton's  time  to  the  present  56-71 

CHAPTER  V. 

Fulton's  experiments  with  steam  navigation  —Correspondence  with  the 
Earl  of  Stanhope — Attempts  of  inventors  previous  to  Fulton's 
time — Chancellor  Livingston — Association  of  Livingston  and  Ful- 
ton— Experiment  on  the  vSeine  in  1803 — Engine  of  the  Clermont 
oVdered        ..........  72-99 


vi 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 

P'inancial  troubles  of  Fulton  and  Livingston — Launch  and  trial  trip  of 
the  Clermont — Fulton's  account  of  the  first  voyage  to  Albany — 
Consternation  along  the  river — Dr.  Perry's  narrative — Improve- 
ments in  the  boat — Hostility  of  river  men — Opposition  and  ex- 
pensive litigation — "  Pendulum  boats  "       ....  100-126 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  successors  of  the  Clermont — Increase  of  speed — East  River  ferry- 
boats— The  "horse-ferry" — Boat  on  Long  Island  Sound — Boats 
on  the  Mississippi — Plans  for  a  war  steamer — The  first  war  steamer 
in  the  world — Her  description,  performance,  and  fate — The  death 
of  Fulton   127-154 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Fulton's  plan  for  a  submarine  boat — Description  of  "The  Mute" — 
Fulton's  last  illness  ;  his  death  and  funeral — Fulton's  family  and 
estate — The  ingratitude  of  republics — Tardy  and  niggardly  action 
of  Congress — Fulton  and  the  "perpetual-motion  "  machine — Ful- 
ton's personal  appearance  and  peculiarities — His  grave  in  Trinity 
churchyard  155-169 

CHAPTER  IX. 

First  ocean  voyage  of  a  steamer — The  Stevens  family  and  their  work 
in  steam  navigation — The  Stevens  Battery — Commodore  Vander- 
bilt — LLis  opposition  boats  and  his  steamship  enterprises — The 
Chancellor  Livingston — Modern  steamboats  on  the  Hudson — 
Incidents  and  anecdotes  of  steamboating — The  fastest  boats  170-189 

CHAPTER  X.. 

The  first  steamboat  on  Western  waters — Oliver  Evans  and  his  boat — 
Exploration  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  by  Nicholas  J.  Roose- 
velt— Building  the  first  steamboat  at  Pittsburgh — The  pioneer 
voyage — Exciting  adventures — Passing  the  falls  of  the  Ohio — The 
Comet  and  earthquakes  of  181 1 — Indians — Arrival  at  New  Or- 
leans— A  wedding  at  the  end  of  the  voyage  ....  190-212 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Early  navigation  of  the  Mississippi — Keel-boats,  flat-boats,  and  rafts — 
Their  peculiarities — Reminiscences  of   the  keel-boatmen — Mike 


CONTENTS. 


vii 


Fink  and  his  tragic  death — The  New  Orleans  and  her  successors — 
First  steamboat  from  New  Orleans  to  Pittsburgh — Racing  on  the 
Mississippi — The  last  great  race — Snags,  sawyers,  and  the  Red 
River  raft — First  ascent  of  the  Mississippi  by  steam — What  the 
first  steam-whistle  did   ........  213-234 

^  CHAPTER  XII. 

Introduction  of  steamboats  on  the  great  lakes — The  *  *  Walk-in-the- 
Water  " — Growth  of  the  northern  lake  fleet — First  steamers  on  the 
Pacific — Early  steamers  to  and  in  California — The  Senator  and 
the  Golden  Age — Steam  ,  lines  across  the  Pacific — Chinese  steamer 
at  San  Francisco — First  steamships  around  the  world    .        .  235-255 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Early  navigation  of  Long  Island  Sound — Prohibitory  laws  against 
Fulton  and  Livingston — First  steamboat  to  Providence  and  New- 
port— Description  of  early  boats — Contrast  with  those  of  to-day — 
The  old  sailing  packets — Steamboats  at  Boston  and  along  the  coast 
of  Maine       ..........  256-274 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Early  steamboats  on  the  Clyde,  Thantes,  Humber,  and  in  other  British 
waters — The  Comet  and  Enterprise — First  steamboat  at  London — 
Opposition  of  the  watermen — Oldest  steamboat  in  existence — 
Steamboats  in  Canada  and  Java  in  1809  and  1810  .        .       .  275-289 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Further  history  of  steam  navigation  in  foreign  waters — Steamers  in 
Russia,  France,  and  other  countries — First  steamer  in  Lake  Baikal, 
Siberia — Inauguration  of  steam-towing — Description  of  a  steam- 
collier — Steam  navigation  to  Belfast,  Dublin,  and  Havre — New 
steamers  between  Holyhead  and  Dublin — David  Napier — Present 
steam  fleet  of  Great  Britain  .......  290-308 

CHAPTER  XVI. 


First  steamboat  in  India — An  eventful  career  of  sixty  years — Steamers 
in  Chinese  waters — The  "  Fo-Shune  " — The  mails  to  India — 
Steam  navigation  in  Japan  and  China — Early  steamers  on  the  At- 
lantic— The  log-book  of  the  Savannah — The  Sirius,  Great  Western, 


viii  CONTENTS. 


and  British  Queen — Prospectus  of  the  British  and  American  Steam 
Navigation  Company    ........  309-336 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

How  the  Great  Western  Steamship  Company  was  organized — Samuel 
Cunard  and  his  enterprises — The  Cunard  Company — Cutting  out 
the  Britannia — Iron  taking  the  place  of  wood  for  ship-building — 
Adoption  of  the  screw — Growth  of  steamers — Umbria  and  Etruria 
compared  v/ith  Britannia — Steamers  never  heard  from — American 
steamship  lines     ,       .       .  337-365 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

History  of  the  Collins  line — Loss  of  the  Pacific  and  Arctic — Fate  of 
the  other  Collins  steamers — Other  American  steam  lines — Cause 
of  their  present  inactivity — The  United  States  and  Brazil  line — 
English  and  French  aid  to  steamers — American  coasting  lines,  369-383 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

How  the  Inman  line  was  founded — First  steamers  for  carrying  emi- 
grants— Steady  increase  in  the  size  of  ships — The  City  of  Rome — 
Hamburg  and  Bremen  lines  and  their  origin — The  Anchor  line 
and  its  latest  steamship — The  ''French  Mail" — Notes  on  the 
compound  marine  engine  and  the  lengthening  of  ships  .        .  384-414 

CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Guion  Steamship  line — The  Greyhound  of  the  Atlantic — The 
White  and  Red  Star  lines — The  Monarch  line  and  its  largest 
passenger — Other  Transatlantic  lines — Origin  of  the  '*  P.  and 
O."  Company — Its  growth  and  extent  of  its  service  —  The 
Messageries  Maritimes — German  line  to  Asia  and  Australia — 
Other  great  lines  —  The  ocean  tramp  —  Ocean  steam-tonnage 
of  the  world  415-433 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

The  Great  Eastern :  her  history,  achievements,  and  failures  —  A 
ghost-story — The  cable  steamers  Faraday,  Hooper,  and  Minia — 
The  Anthracite  and  her  peculiarities — Winans'  "cigar-ship" — 
Captain  Lundborg's  invention — The  Castalia,  Calais-Douvres,  and 
Bessemer — A  steamer  **  nearly  all  wheel  " — The  doomed  steamer 
Meteor — The  Stiletto  434-457 


CONTENTS, 


ix 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PAGE 

First  steam  vessels  of  war  in  England,  France,  and  other  countries — 
Revolution  in  naval  architecture  —  The  first  iron-clad — Battle 
between  Monitor  and  Merrimac — Turreted  war-ships — Present 
thickness  of  plating  on  armored  ships — Strength  of  the  navies 
of  the  world — Torpedoes  and  torpedo-boats — Different  systems 
in  use — The  battle  on  the  Min  River — The  Nordenfeldt, 
Goubet,  Tuck,  and  other  systems — Present  work  of  the  great 
naval  powers   458-497 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Portrait  of  Robert  Fulton  Frontispiece 

Birthplace  OF  Fulton   xiv 

Fulton's  First  Experiment  with  Paddle-Wheels  ...  7 

Fulton  Farm   13 

Fulton's  Double  Inclined  Plane   21 

Fulton's  Cast-Iron  Aqueduct   31 

Fulton's  Submarine  Boats,  the  Nautilus  and  Mute,  39 

Fulton  Blowing  UP  THE  Dorothea   51 

Modern  War  Steamer  Attacked  by  a  Torpedo-Boat,  53 

V)  Fulton's  Torpedo  System   59 

British  Iron-Clad  Protected  by  Torpedo  Netting  . .  69 

Jonathan  Hull's  Tow-Boat,  1736   75 

John  Fitch's  Steamboat  at  Philadelphia   79 

John  Fitch,  1796,  Collect  Pond,  New  York   80 

Miller,  Taylor,  and  Symington,  1788   85 

The  Charlotte  Dundas,  1801   87 

Stevens'  Sectional  Boiler,  1804   87 

Stevens'  Screw  Steamer,  1804   88 

Fulton's  First  Steamboat   95 

Engine  of  the  Clermont,  1807   loi 

-0  Departure  of  the  Clermont  on  her  First  Voyage.  .  105 

V  Clermont,  1807   127 

Car  of  Neptune,  1808   129 

Paragon,  1811   130 

Raritan,  1808   131 

York  (Ferry-Boat),  181  i   133 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS, 

PAGE 

Fire-Fly  (Ferry-Boat),  1812    133 

Camden,  1812  ,   136 

Richmond,  1813   136 

Washington,  1813   137 

Nassau,  1813   137 

Vesuvius,  1813   139 

Fulton,  1814   141 

Olive  Branch,  1815   142 

Emperor  of  Russia,  1815   143 

Original  Plan  of  the  Demologos   144 

Launch  of  the  Fulton  the  First,  1814   145 

The  Fulton  the  First  (Fulton's  Drawings)   149 

(^Fulton's  Nautilus   156 

The  Mute   157 

Stevens'  Return  Tubular  Boiler   171 

Engine,  Boilers,  and   Screw  Propellers  Used  by 

Stevens   173 

Chancellor  Livingston,  1815   179 

The  North  America  and  Albany,  1827-1839   181 

Evans'    Oruktor  Amphibolis,"  1804   191 

The  Pittsburgh  ;  Light  Draught  Steamer  of  Present 

DAY   201 

The  Ozark  ;  Light  Draught  Gunboat   234 

The  Side-Lever  Engine   237 

City  OF  Peking   241 

The  Solano  ;  the  Largest  Ferry-Boat  in  the  World,  247 

Peruvian  Iron-Clad   253 

The  Two  Rhode  Islands,  1836,  1876   257 

The  Pilgrim   265 

Walking-Beam  of  the  Pilgrim   267 

The  Comet,  1812   279 

City  of  Dublin  Steam-Packet  Company's  New  Mail 

Steamer  Ireland  ,   301 

The  Earliest  Tow-Boat  308 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS,  xiii 

PAGE 

The  Stonewall  , .  „ .   317 

The  Savannah   319 

Four-Bladed  Screw   365 

The  Steamship  Atlantic   368 

Sectional  View  of  North  German  Lloyd  Steamship,  395 

Oscillating  Marine  Engine   406 

The  Feathering  Paddle-wheel   413 

Vertical  Longitudinal  Section  of  One  of  the  Nine 

Boilers  of  the  Alaska   416 

Engines  of  Steamer  Alaska  ,   417 

Section  of  One  of  the  Boilers  of  the  Alaska   419 

The  Great  Eastern  at  Sea   435 

Plan  of  the  Great  Eastern   436 

Boiler  of  the  Steamer  Great  Eastern   439 

Cast  ALIA,  the  Twin  Steamer.   449 

Oscillating  Cabin,  Steamer  Bessemer   450 

Steam  Pleasure  Boat   457 

The  Monitor  Attacking  the  Merrimac   465 

Modern  Iron-Clads   467 

New  Russian  Torpedo-Boat   475 

NoRDENFELDT*s  Submarine  Boat   477 

Interior  of  Nordenfeldt's  Boat   479 

Goubet's  Submarine  Boat   481 

Tuck's  Torpedo  Directly  beneath  the  Vessel   483 

Tuck's  Torpedo  Leaving  Vessel   485 

Engine  of  Modern  Steam-Launch   497 


ROBERT  FULTON 


AND  THE 


HISTORY  OF  STEAM  NAVIGATION. 


The  Fulton  Family — Robert's  birth  and  birthplace — Incidents  of  his  boyhood 
— Making  a  paddle-boat — Choice  of  an  occupation — Buys  a  home  for  his 


OME  time  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 


v^J/  century  a  young  man  named  Robert  Fulton 
emigrated  from  Kilkenny,  Ireland,  to  America.  He 
lived  first  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  married  Mary 
Smith,  a  native  of  that  city,  and  afterwards  moved 
to  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania.  For  the  first  few  years 
after  his  arrival  in  America  he  engaged  in  the  tailor- 
ing business,  but  subsequently  became  a  farmer.  In 
1759  he  bought  a  house  in  Lancaster,  which  he 
owned  until  February  8,  1765,  when  he  sold  it  to 
Edward  Shippen.  On  the  same  day  he  bought  a 
farm  in  Little  Britain  township  (now  called  Fulton), 
and  shortly  afterwards  moved  to  it.  On  this  farm, 
Robert  Fulton,  the  subject  of  this  biography,  was 
born  some  time  in  i  765.  The  exact  date  of  his 
birth  is  not  positively  known. 


CHAPTER  I. 


mother. 


2 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Robert  Fulton,  senior,  had  three  daughters  and 
two  sons  ;  Robert,  junior,  was  the  eldest  son  and 
third  child.  The  father  sold  the  farm  in  Little 
Britain  in  i  766  and  returned  to  Lancaster,  where 
he  died  two  years  later.  His  wife  survived  him 
nearly  a  third  of  a  century  ;  she  died  in  1799,  on 
a  small  farm  in  Washington  County,  Pennsylvania, 
which  had  been  bought  by  her  son  Robert  thirteen 
years  earlier. 

Down  to  his  eighth  year  Robert  was  educated  at 
home.  His  mother  taught  him  to  read  and  write, 
but  his  accomplishments  in  chirography  were 
limited  to  little  more  than  pot-hooks  and  tram- 
mels." He  had  also  a  slight  knowledge  of  arith- 
metic, and  very  early  in  life  he  showed  an  aptness 
for  drawing.  In  1773  he  was  sent  to  school  in 
Lancaster,  where  he  was  taught  by  Caleb  Johnson,  a 
dignified  Quaker,  who  soon  pronounced  young 
Fulton  a  dull  pupil.  He  was  backward  with  his 
lessons  and  frequently  reproved,  but  it  was  soon 
ascertained  that  he  was  by  no  means  idle.  He 
cared  less  for  books  than  for  his  pencil,  and  during 
the  time  allotted  to  recreation  he  often  spent  hours 
ov^r  drawings. 

He  had  a  fondness  for  the  shops  of  the  mechan- 
ics, where  he  was  heartily  welcomed  ;  with  his  taste 
for  drawing  and  his  quickness  in  mechanical  work, 
he  often  rendered  practical  aid  to  persons  much 
older  than  himself. 


BO  YHOOD. 


3 


A  few  anecdotes  of  his  school-days  are  preserved 
in  the  histories  and  traditions  of  Lancaster.  One 
day  his  teacher  reproved  him  for  neglecting  his 
books,  and  the  reproof  was  administered  after  the 
manner  of  the  old  masters," — with  a  ferule  on  the 
knuckle.  Robert  straightened  himself,  folded  his 
arms,  and  then  said  to  Mr.  Johnson  :  ''Sir,  I  came 
here  to  have  something  beat  into  my  head  and  not 
into  my  hand." 

On  another  occasion  he  came  late,  and  when  the 
teacher  asked  the  reason,  Robert  answered  that  he 
had  been  at  Mr.  Miller  s  shop  pounding  out  lead 
to  make  a  pencil.  In  proof  of  his  statement  he 
exhibited  the  pencil  and  said  it  was  the  best  he  ever 
had  in  his  life  ;  Mr.  Johnson  approved  it  and  gave 
the  youth  some  words  of  encouragement,  and  in  a 
few  days  nearly  all  the  other  pupils  were  supplied 
with  pencils  of  the  same  kind.  It  is  said  that  when 
Mr.  Johnson  once  urged  him  to  give  more  atten- 
tion to  his  studies,  the  boy  answered  that  his  head 
was  so  full  of  original  notions  that  there  was  no 
room  to  store  away  the  contents  of  dusty  books." 
As  he  did  not  spend  his  time  in  idleness  there  is  no 
doubt  of  the  sincerity  of  his  statement,  and  his 
devotion  to  mechanical  works  shows  what  was  the 
natural  bent  of  his  mind. 

In  1778,  when  Robert  was  thirteen  years  old, 
the  following  notice  was  published  in  Lancaster  : 

''  The  excessive  heat  of  the  weather,  the  present 


4 


ROBERT  FULTON,  [ 


scarcity  of  candles,  and  other  considerations,  in- 
duce the  council  to  recommend  to  the  inhabitants 
to  forbear  illuminating  the  city  on  Saturday  eve- 
ning next,  July  4th. 

By  order, 
(Signed)  Timothy  Matlack,  Sec/' 

Like  other  patriotic  youths,  Robert  had  prepared 
for  the  illumination,  and  had  a  quantity  of  candles 
ready.  As  soon  as  the  notice  appeared  he  went  to 
the  shop  of  Mr.  Fisher  and  asked  to  exchange  his 
candles  for  powder.  Mr.  Fisher  asked  why  he 
wished  to  part  with  the  candles,  which  were  scarce 
and  dear.  The  youth  answered  that  he  was  a  good 
citizen  and  wanted  to  respect  the  request  of  the 
authorities,  who  did  not  wish  the  streets  and  win- 
dows illuminated.  He  would  not  use  the  candles 
for  the  purpose  they  were  originally  intended,  but 
preferred  illuminating  the  heavens  with  sky-rockets. 

After  obtaining  the  powder,  he  bought  some 
sheets  of  pasteboard  at  another  shop  (kept  by  Mr. 
Cossart),  and  asked  that  the  sheets  might  be  left 
open  as  he  wished  to  roll  them  in  his  own  way.  In 
answer  to  a  question  by  Mr.  Cossart,  as  to  what 
he  intended  doing  with  the  pasteboard,  he  made 
the  same  explanation  that  he  had  already  given  to 
Mr.  Fisher. 

The  pasteboard-dealer  laughed,  and  said  it  was 
an  impossibility  to  shoot  candles  through  the  air 
in  the  way  he  proposed. 


BO  YHOOD. 


5 


No,  sir,"  Robert  answered,  there  is  nothing 
impossible." 

He  made  the  rockets,  which  were  fairly  success- 
ful, and  succeeded  in  astonishing  some  of  the  good 
people  of  Lancaster,  who  had  never  seen  any  thing 
of  the  kind. 

Mr.  Reigart,  one  of  his  biographers,  tells  the 
following  : 

Robert  was  known  to  purchase  small  quantities  of 
quicksilver  from  Dr.  Adam  Simon  Kuhn,  druggist,  re- 
siding opposite  the  market-house.  He  was  trying  some 
experiments  that  he  did  not  wish  to  make  public,  and 
which  the  workmen  in  Mr.  Fenno's  and  Mr.  Christian 
Isch's  shops  were  anxious  to  find  out,  but  could  not.  He 
was  in  the  almost  daily  habit  of  visiting  those  shops  (Mr. 
Isch's  smithshop  was  then  located  on  the  northeast  cor- 
ner of  West  King  and  Prince  streets),  and  was  a  favorite 
among  the  workmen,  who  took  advantage  of  his  talent 
for  drawling  by  getting  him  to  make  ornamental  designs 
for  guns,  and  sketches  of  the  size  and  shapes  of  guns,  and 
then  giving  the  calculations  of  the  force,  size  of  the  bore 
and  balls,  and  the  distance  they  would  fire ;  and  he 
would  accompany  them  to  the  open  commons  near  by 
Potter's  Field,  to  prove  his  calculation  by  shooting  at  a 
mark.  On  account  of  his  expertness  in  his  calculations, 
and  on  account  of  their  ineffectual  efforts  to  discover  the 
use  he  was  making  of  quicksilver,  the  shop-hands  nick- 
named him  '  Quicksilver  Bob.* 

Mr.  Mcssersmith  and  Mr.  Christian  Isch  were  em- 
ployed by  the  government  to  make  and  repair  the  arms 
for  the  troops,  and  on  several  occasions  guards  were 
stationed  at  their  shops  to  watch  and  see  that  workmen 


6 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


were  constantly  employed  during  whole  nights  and  on 
Sunday,  to  prevent  any  delay.  The  workmen  had  so 
much  reliance  and  confidence  in  '  Quicksilver  Bob's ' 
judgment  and  mechanical  skill,  that  every  suggestion  he 
would  make  as  to  the  alteration  of  a  gun,  or  any  addi- 
tional ornament  that  he  would  design,  were  invariably 
adopted  by  common  consent. 

"  In  the  summer  of  1779,  Robert  Fulton  evinced  an  ex- 
traordinary fondness  for  inventions.  He  was  a  frequent 
visitor  at  Mr.  Messersmith's  and  Fenno's  gunsmith  shops 
almost  daily,  and  endeavored  to  manufacture  a  small  air- 
gun.  One  of  Mr.  Jacob  Messersmith's  apprentices,  Mr. 
Christopher  Gumpf,  who  was  at  the  time  eighteen  years 
of  age,  used  frequently  to  accompany  his  father.  Deter 
Gumph,  to  the  Conestoga  on  fishing  excursions,  Mr.  ^ 
Deter  Gumpf  being  an  experienced  angler,  and  very  fond 
of  fishing,  and  he  was  pleased  to  have  the  company  of 
Christopher  and  Robert.  The  old  gentleman  had  a  small 
flat-boat,  which  he  had  kept  secured  to  the  trunk  of  a  tree 
by  a  chain  and  padlock,  for  his  own  accommodation.  He 
generally  required  the  boys  to  pole  the  boat  to  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  creek  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rockford, 
the  country-seat  of  General  Hand,  which  at  that  time  was 
the  most  secluded,  deeply  shaded,  and  quiet  neighborhood 
along  the  Conestoga.  Returning  homeward  one  evening, 
Fulton  observed  to  Christopher  that  he  was  very  tired 
using  that  pole,  and  Christopher  coincided  with  him  that 
the  labor  was  too  severe. 

Robert  absented  himself  a  week,  having  gone  to  Little 
Britain  township  to  spend  a  few  days  at  his  aunt's  ;  and 
while  there  he  planned  and  completed  a  small  working 
model  of  a  fishing-boat  with  paddle-wheels.  On  leaving 
his  aunt's,  he  placed  the  model  in  the  garret  with  the 
request  that  it  should  not  be  destroyed.    Many  years 


8 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


afterwards,  that  simple  model  was  the  attraction  of 
friends,  and  became,  instead  of  lumber  in  the  garret,  an 
ornament  in  the  aunt's  parlor,  who  prized  it  highly.  That 
model  was  the  result  of  Robert's  fishing  excursions  with 
.  Christopher  Gumpf ;  and  when  he  returned  from  his 
aunt's  he  told  Christopher  that  he  must  make  a  set  of 
paddles  to  work  at  the  sides  of  the  boat,  to  be  operated 
by  a  double  crank,  and  then  they  could  propel  the  old 
gentleman's  fishing-boat  with  greater  ease.  Two  arms  or 
pieces  of  timber  were  then  fastened  together  at  right 
angles,  with  a  paddle  at  each  end,  and  the  crank  was  at- 
tached to  the  boat  across  it  near  the  stern,  with  a  paddle 
operating  on  a  pivot  as  a  rudder  ;  and  Fulton's  first  in- 
vention was  tried  on  the  Conestoga  River  opposite  Rock- 
ford,  in  the  presence  of  Deter  and  Christopher  Gumpf. 
The  boys  were  so  pleased  with  the  experiment,  that  they 
hid  the  paddles  in  the  bushes  on  the  shore,  lest  others 
might  use  and  break  them,  and  attached  them  to  the  boat 
whenever  they  chose  ;  and  thus  did  they  enjoy  very  many 
fishing  excursions." 

Other  anecdotes  show^  that  the  old  adage,  the 
boy  is  father  of  the  man,"  was  illustrated  in  young 
Fulton's  case.  He  w^as  constantly  occupied  with 
mechanical  projects,  some  of  them  quite  visionary 
in  their  character  and  others  of  practical  value, 
while  his  skill  in  drawing  kept  his  pencil  in  active 
use.  His  boyhood  was  in  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary war,  and,  according  to  the  tradition,  Fulton 
was  a  most  ardent  American.  He  had  a  genius 
for  caricature,  and  employed  it  in  making  gro- 
tesque sketches  of  the  Hessian  soldiers,  who  were 


BO  YHOOD. 


9 


stationed  in  Lancaster  for  the  protection  of  the 
Tory  inhabitants  and  the  suppression  of  the  patriots. 
In  the  neighborhood  of  the  camping  ground  there 
was  generally  quite  an  assemblage  of  the  towns- 
people. Daily  about  sunset,  and  very  often,  there 
were  fights  between  the  Whig  and  Tory  boys. 
These  collisions  became  so  frequent  that  a  rope 
was  stretched  across  the  street  as  a  sort  of  neutral 
line,  and  if  either  party  ventured  beyond  the  boun- 
dary there  was  sure  to  be  trouble. 

Robert  made  a  sketch  of  the  spot  and  drew  upon 
his  imagination  sufficiently  to  represent  the  rebel 
boys  crossing  the  rope  and  thrashing  the  Tories. 
When  his  picture  was  complete  he  showed  it  in 
the  workshops,  where  it  attracted  much  attention. 
It  did  more,  as  it  gave  a  hint  to  the  rebels  which 
they  proceeded  to  act  upon.  The  very  next  eve- 
ning after  the  exhibition  of  the  sketch,  they  jumped 
the  rope  and  brought  on  a  fight  of  such  a  serious 
character  that  the  town  authorities  interfered  and 
prohibited  all  gatherings  of  the  same  kind  in 
future.  The  instigator  of  the  performance  did  not 
have  an  active  hand  in  it — not  from  any  personal 
reluctance,  but  because  he  had  promised  his  mother 
he  would  not.  A  few  of  his  sketches  at  this  period 
are  still  in  existence,  but  the  most  of  them  fell  into 
Tory  hands  and  were  destroyed.  - 

As  he  advanced  in  years  it  became  necessary 
for  young  Fulton  to  choose  a  permanent  occupa- 


10 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


tion.  He  was  more  fond  of  the  pencil  and  brush 
than  of  any  thing  else,  and  his  ambition  turned  him 
in  the  direction  of  art.  The  celebrated  American 
painter,  Benjamin  West,  was  a  native  of  the  county 
adjoining  the  one  in  which  Fulton  was  born,  and 
his  father  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Robert  Fulton, 
senior.  At  the  time  of  which  we  write  West  had 
become  famous,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  his 
success  had  much  to  do  with  the  bent  of  young 
Fulton's  mind. 

He  too  determined  to  be  an  artist,  and  at  the  age 
of  seventeen  he  left  Lancaster  for  Philadelphia, 
where  he  hoped  to  perfect  himself  in  the  technical 
knowledge  requisite  for  success,  as  he  had  the  good 
sense  to  understand  that  he  could  not  depend  en- 
tirely upon  his  natural  abilities.  He  was  industri- 
ous and  painstaking,  and  his  industry  was  rewarded. 
He  made  many  friends,  among  them  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  other  men  of  prominence,  and 
through  these  friends  his  occupation  became  remu- 
nerative in  the  first  year  of  his  stay  in  the  Quaker 
City.  He  painted  portraits  and  landscapes,  made 
drawings  of  machinery,  buildings,  carriages,  and 
performed,  in  fact,  pretty  nearly  all  artistic  work 
that  came  to  him. 

In  the  four  years  between  his  seventeenth  and 
his  twenty-first  birthday  he  not  only  supported 
himself,  but  sent  occasional  remittances  to  his 
mother  and  sisters,  and  at  their  urgent  invitation 


BO  YHOOD. 


II 


decided  to  spend  the  date  of  his  majority  at  home. 
How  much  money  he  had  saved  from  his  earnings 
is  not  known,  but  he  certainly  had  accumulated 
enough  for  the  purchase  of  a  farm  in  Washington 
County,  for  which  he  paid  eighty  pounds  (four 
hundred  dollars),  a  considerable  amount  for  those 
days.  The  document  by  which  this  property  was 
conveyed  is  still  in  existence,  and  reads  as  follows  : 

Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  that  I, 
Thomas  Pollock,  and  Margaret,  his  wife,  of  the  township 
of  Hopewell,  county  of  Washington,  and  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania, for  and  in  consideration  of  the  sum  of  eighty 
pounds,  lawful  money  of  the  State  aforesaid,  to  me  in 
hand  paid  by  Robert  Fulton,  miniature  painter,  of  the 
city  of  Philadelphia,  and  State  aforesaid,  yeoman,  before 
the  sealing  and  delivery  of  these  presents,  the  receipt 
whereof  we  do  hereby  acknowledge,  and  ourselves  there- 
with fully  satisfied,  contented,  and  paid,  have  granted, 
bargained,  sold,  and  confirmed,  and  by  these  presents  do 
grant,  bargain,  sell,  make  over,  and  confirm  unto  the 
aforesaid  Robert  Fulton,  to  his  heirs  and  assigns — 

A  certain  parcel  of  land  on  the  waters  of  Cross  creek, 
it  being  part  of  a  tract  of  land  granted  by  the  Common- 
wealth of  Pennsylvania,  the  I2th  day  of  December,  A.D. 
1785,  to  the  Rev.  Joseph  Smith,  his  heirs  and  assigns, 
called  Wiliome,  situated  on  the  waters  aforesaid,  in  the 
county  aforesaid,  BEGINNING  at  a  corner  white-oak,  thence 
by  other  lands  of  the  said  Joseph  Smith  south  eighty-five 
degrees,  west  forty-six  perches  to  a  white-oak  on  the 
Wheeling  path,  thence  north  thirty-two  degrees,  west 
eighteen  perches  to  a  post,  thence  south  sixty-eight  de- 
grees, west  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  perches  to  a 


12 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


dogwood  tree,  thence  north  thirty  degrees,  west  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  perches  to  a  stump  and  hickory  tree,  thence 
south  thirty  degrees,  west  two  hundred  perches  to  the 
place  of  Beginning — CONTAINING  eighty-four  (84)  acres 
and  three-fourths  of  an  acre — 

With  the  appurtenances  (which  said  land  was  formerly 
surveyed  and  platted  by  a  certain  John  Hale  for  a  certain 
Thomas  Gardner,  afterwards  surveyed  with  a  tract  of  land 
in  pursuance  of  a  warrant  granted  to  the  said  Joseph 
Smith,  dated  the  30th  day  of  September,  1785,  and  con- 
veyed by  said  Joseph  Smith  and  Esther  his  wife  to 
Thomas  Pollock) — To  have  and  to  hold  the  tract  or  par- 
cel of  land,  with  the  appurtenances,  unto  the  said  Robert 
Fulton  and  his  heirs,  to  the  use  of  him,  the  said  Robert 
Fulton,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  for  ever,  free  and  clear  of  all 
restrictions  and  reservations  as  to  mines,  royalties,  quit- 
rents,  or  otherwise,  excepting  and  reserving  only  the  fifth 
part  of  all  gold  and  silver  ore  for  the  use  of  this  Common- 
wealth, to  be  delivered  at  the  pit's  mouth  clear  of  all 
charges. 

In  witness  whereof  we  have  here  set  our  hands  and 
caused  our  seals  to  be  affixed,  the  6th  day  of  May,  A.D. 
1786. 

Thomas  Pollock,  [l.s.] 
Margaret  Pollock,  [l.s.] 
Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  in  the  presence  of 

J.  Marshal, 
Mary  Marshal, 
''Thomas  Marques." 

A  copy  of  this  paper  can  be  seen  in  the  Record- 
er's office  in  and  for  the  county  of  Washington,  in 
Record  Book  C,  vol.  i.,  page  56,  May  8,  1786. 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Mrs.  Fulton  resided  on  the  farm  until  her  death. 
The  property  remained  in  the  name  of  Robert 
Fulton,  but  he  never  lived  there.  His  sister,  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Scott,  occupied  the  place  and  received  it 
by  will  from  her  brother,  together  with  all  the  live 
stock  and  portable  property  appertaining  to  it. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Fulton  goes  to  England — West's  patronage  and  friendship — Duke  of  Bridge- 
water  and  Earl  Stanhope  —  West  and  his  works —  Fulton  on  canal  navi- 
gation— His  engineering  work  in  England — His  inventions — The  Erie 
Canal. 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  brought  the  his- 
tory of  Robert  Fulton  down  to  the  time  when 
he  attained  his  majority  and  commemorated  the 
event  by  giving  a  home  to  his  mother.  Immedi- 
ately after  buying  the  farm  in  Washington  County, 
he  moved  the  family  to  it  and  after  seeing  them 
comfortably  settled  returned  to  Philadelphia.  On 
his  way  there  he  stopped  a  short  time  at  a  mineral 
spring  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  which  was  some- 
what broken  in  consequence  of  pulmonary  troubles, 
which  his  friends  attributed  to  his  close  application 
to  his  profession. 

Partly  with  a  view  to  the  restoration  of  his  health 
and  partly  because  of  his  ambition  to  make  a  name 
in  the  artistic  world,  he  decided  upon  a  voyage  to 
Europe,  a  momentous  undertaking  for  those  times. 
He  had  already  corresponded  with  Benjamin  West, 
who  promised  to  aid  him  with  patronage  and 
advice,  and  he  carried  letters  to  several  prominent 
Americans  then  in  London  and  Paris.     West  was 


i6 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


as  good  as  his  promise  ;  he  was  so  well  pleased 
with  his  compatriot  that  he  introduced  him  into 
society,  and  took  him  into  his  own  family  where, 
according  to  his  biographer,  he  remained  several 
years,"  but  the  exact  period  is  not  stated. 

West  painted  Fulton's  portrait,  which  is  now  in 
possession  of  his  family,  but  is  not  considered  one 
of  the  best  works  of  the  famous  artist.  Through 
the  introductions  obtained  by  his  countryman,  and 
the  advantage  of  his  instruction,  Fulton  had  plenty 
of  employment.  Portraits  and  landscapes  painted 
by  him  at  this  period  are  to  be  found  in  several  of 

the  stately  homes  of  England,"  and  he  counted 
among  his  friends  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater,  Lord 
Stanhope,  and  other  titled  personages.  Through 
all  his  artistic  studies  and  work,  he  never  lost  his 
taste  for  mechanics  and  engineering,  and  his  time 
was  divided  between  painting  and  engineering  dur- 
ing a  large  part  of  his  stay  abroad.  His  friendship 
for  the  noblemen  named  above  was  in  consequence 
of  his  engineering  abilities  rather  than  his  skill 
with  the  brush. 

Francis  Egerton  Bridgewater,  second  and  last 
duke  of  that  name,  was  the  owner  of  extensive 
coal  mines  at  Worsley,  and  his  fame  rests  upon  his 
achievements  in  causing  the  construction  of  a  navi- 
gable canal  from  Worsley  to  Manchester,  which 
was  afterwards  extended  to  connect  the  rivers 
Trent  and  Mersey.      Charles  Earl  Stanhope,  (the 


THE  KARL  OF  BRIDGEWATER. 


17 


third  of  that  title)  was  the  inventor  of  the  Stanhope 
printing-press,  and  devoted  much  time  to  the  study 
of  mechanics  and  engineering. 

He  suggested  several  improvements  in  canal  locks, 
and  it  was  in  connection  with  canals  and  their  im- 
provement that  he  became  intimate  with  Fulton. 
They  kept  up  a  steady  correspondence  after  Fulton 
left  England,  and  frequently  exchanged  ideas  on 
the  subject  in  which  both  were  greatly  interested.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  railway  had  not  then 
been  invented,  or  at  any  rate  was  practically 
unknown,  and  the  canal  was  regarded  as  the  cheap- 
est route  of  transportation.  Canals  or  artificial 
waterways  had  been  in  use  in  Europe  and  Asia  for 
hundreds  of  years,  but  they  probably  received  their 
greatest  development  in  the  century  immediately 
preceding  the  invention  of  the  steam  railway. 

During  his  residence  in  England  Mr.  Fulton, 
possibly  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  West  and  cer- 
tainly with  his  approval,  suggested  that  the  citizens 
of  Philadelphia  should  purchase  the  paintings  of 
the  latter  and  found  an  institute  of  fine  arts  to  en- 
courage the  study  of  painting  and  sculpture.  Ac- 
companying the  letter  containing  the  proposal, 
Mr.  Fulton  sent  a  list  of  all  of  Mr.  West's  paintings, 
portraits  excepted,  and  said  they  could  be  bought  for 
fifteen  thousand  pounds  sterling.  Considering  the 
prices  subsequently  obtained  by  Mr.  West  for 
single  pictures  in  the  collection,  the  offer  was  ex- 


i8 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


ceedingly  liberal,  and  the  investment  would  have 
been  a  very  profitable  one  for  the  City  of  Brotherly 
Love.  Fulton  suggested  measures  for  raising  the 
necessary  funds  for  the  purchase,  but  no  attempt 
was  made  to  carry  out  his  plans. 

In  view  of  the  intimacy  between  Fulton  and 
West,  a  few  words  concerning  the  latter  will  be  of 
interest. 

Benjamin  West  was  born  in  Springfield,  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1738,  and  died  in  London  in  1820.  In 
his  seventh  year  he  began  to  make  colored  draw- 
ings from  nature  and  when  he  was  nine  years  old 
he  painted  a  picture  which  he  regarded  sixty-seven 
years  later  as  unsurpassed  in  certain  particulars  by 
any  of  his  subsequent  works.  He  went  to  Europe 
in  1760,  and  in  1768  took  up  his  residence  in  Lon- 
don, where  he  passed  the  rest  of  his  life.  He  soon 
became  famous,  and,  during  his  artistic  career, 
painted  or  sketched  about  four  hundred  pictures, 
besides  leaving  more  than  two  hundred  drawings 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  Battle,  historical,  and 
religious  pieces  were  his  specialties.  Some  of  his 
most  remarkable  works  were,  The  Death  of  Gen- 
eral Wolfe,"  ''Agrippina  Landing  with  the  Ashes  of 
Germanicus,'' Christ  Healing  the  Sick,'*  Death  on 
the  Pale  Horse,"  and  ''The  Battle  of  La  Hague." 

The  ''Death  of  Wolfe"  was  painted  in  the  cos- 
tumes of  the  period,  contrary  to  the  advice  of  all 
the  eminent  artists  of  the  day.     Down  to  that  time 


BENJA  MIN    WES  T, 


19 


British  artists  had  not  dared  to  abandon  classical 
garments  in  painting  their  great  pictures,  and  the 
experiment  of  West  was  considered  hazardous  in 
the  extreme.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  advised  against 
it,  but  afterwards  came  to  West  and  complimented 
him  on  his  success.  In  1792  West  succeeded  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds  as  President  of  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy, and  declined  the  honor  of  knighthood.  He 
held  the  position  ten  years  and  then  retired,  but 
was  reelected  in  1803  and  retained  the  honor  until 
his  death. 

Mr.  West  was  noted  for  the  advice,  patronage, 
and  friendly  aid  which  he  gave  to  young  artists,  and 
his  treatment  of  Fulton  was  no  exception  to  his 
general  course.  It  is  possible  that  his  struggles  at 
the  beginning  of  his  career  may  have  caused 
him  to  regard  aspirants  for  honors  with  a  kindly 
eye.  He  made  his  first  brushes  out  of  hair  taken 
from  a  cat's  tail,  and  his  colors  were  made  from 
leaves,  berries,  soot,  and  any  thing  else  that  was 
attainable.  His  earliest  picture  was  drawn  with 
red  and  black  ink,  and  represented  his  sister's  child 
sleeping  in  a  cradle,  and  his  first  instruction  in  mix- 
ing colors  was  obtained  from  some  Indians  who 
made  a  yearly  visit  to  his  native  town.  At  the  age  of 
sixteen  he  was  painting  portraits  in  the  towns  and 
villages  around  Philadelphia,  and,  at  the  suggest- 
ion of  a  gunsmith,  he  composed  and  painted 
''The  Death  of  Socrates." 


20 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


West's  parents  were  Quakers,  and  the  Society  of 
"  Friends  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  idea  of  his  be- 
coming a  painter.  They  held  a  public  meeting  to 
discuss  the  matter,  and  finally  gave  their  consent. 
One  of  his  first  pictures  after  this  event  was  '*The 
Treaty  of  William  Penn  with  the  Indians,"  and  it 
probably  more  than  repaid  his  Quaker  relatives  and 
friends  for  the  condescension.  From  the  age  of 
sixteen  until  he  went  abroad,  he  painted  portraits 
in  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  and,  in  the  latter 
city,  he  received  the  encouragement  which  sent  him 
to  Italy. 

During  his  residence  in  England  Mr.  Fulton  pub- 
lished a  treatise  on  canal  navigation,  and  as  early  as 
I  793  he  had  conceived  the  idea  of  propelling  ves- 
sels by  steam,  which  is  repeatedly  mentioned  in  his 
manuscripts  of  that  time.  In  the  following  year  he 
obtained  a  patent  from  the  British  Government  for 
a  double  inclined-plane  for  raising  and  lowering 
boats  from  one  level  to  another  on  a  system  of 
small  canals  which  he  had  planned.  The  object  of 
his  treatise  on  canal  navigation  was  to  show  that 
small  canals  without  expensive  locks,  and  navigated 
by  boats  of  limited  dimensions,  were  preferable  to 
large  canals,  and  could  be  made  through  many  sec- 
tions of  country  where  extensive  works  would  be 
unremunerative. 

By  means  of  the  double  inclined-plane  he  pro- 
posed to  raise  or  lower  a  boat  without  disturbing 


Details 


of  Double 


Inclined-Plane. 


22 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


its  cargo.  To  accomplish  this,  he  made  use  of 
water  introduced  into  coffers  from  the  higher 
levels,  so  that  the  weight  of  the  laden  boat 
would  be  more  than  counterbalanced,  in  much  the 
sarne  way  that  elevators  are  now  operated  in  many 
buildings  in  New  York  and  other  cities. 

He  also  applied  the  power  of  water  to  turbine  and 
other  wheels  connecting  with  a  revolving  drum 
around  which  the  cable  attached  to  the  boat  was  car- 
ried. By  the  power  of  the  wheel  a  laden  boat  could  be 
carried  up  while  an  empty  one  was  descending  the 
other.  He  did  not  claim  that  the  entire  idea  was 
a  novel  one,  but  his  patent  was  obtained  on  certain 
parts  of  the  machinery,  and  especially  on  the  coffer, 
which  was  made  to  move  in  a  perpendicular  shaft 
or  well. 

His  book  was  not  restricted  to  canals,  but  included 
improvements  in  bridges  and  aqueducts.  Before 
publishing  it  Mr.  Fulton  submitted  his  plans  and 
the  models  of  the  machines  to  Sir  John  Sinclair, 
President  of  the  British  Board  of  Agriculture,  by 
whom  it  was  laid  before  that  honorable  body.  The 
board  passed  a  resolution  endorsing  the  publication 
in  complimentary  terms,  and  the  treatise  is  said  to 
have  been  favorably  received  by  engineers  and 
others  interested  in  public  works.  His  patent  for 
double  inclined-planes  was  issued  May  8,  i  794. 

Immediately  on  the  publication  of  his  book  he 
sent  copies  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 


CANALS. 


23 


the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  to  the  Governor 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  accompanying  each 
copy  was  a  letter  setthig  forth  the  advantages  of 
canals  to  the  prosperity  of  the  United  States.  In 
his  letter  to  the  governor  he  advocated  the  system 
of  canals  in  preference  to  turnpike-roads  for  in- 
terior communications,  and  he  recommended  his 
own  system  of  small  canals  and  inclined  planes. 
The  books  and  letters  were  acknowledged  by  their 
recipients,  but  they  do  not  seem  to  have  attracted 
much  attention  in  the  United  States  until  more 
than  ten  years  later,  when  Fulton  had  returned  to 
his  native  land  and  was  busy  with  his  projects 
of  steam  navigation.  In  1807,  Mr.  Gallatin,  who 
was  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  wrote  to  Mr. 
Fulton,  asking  for  information  which  he  desired  to 
embody  in  his  report  to  Congress  on  public  roads 
and  canals.  In  response  to  the  Secretary's  inquiry 
Mr.  Fulton  set  forth  his  views  at  considerable  length, 
and  his  letter  was  made  a  part  of  the  official  report. 

After  giving  an  estimate  of  the  cost  of  a  canal 
constructed  upon  his  system,  its  carrying  capacities, 
the  cost  of  transportation,  the  rate  of  speed,  the 
advantages  to  people  living  near  it,  etc.,  etc.,  Mr. 
Fulton  wrote  as  follows  : 

Having  thus,  in  some  degree,  considered  the  advan- 
tages which  canals  will  produce  in  point  of  wealth  to 
individuals  and  the  nation,  I  will  nov/  consider  their  im- 
portance to  the  Union,  and  their  political  consequences. 


24 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


First,  their  effect  on  raising  the  value  of  the  pubHc 
lands,  and  thereby  augmenting  the  revenue. 

In  all  cases  where  canals  shall  pass  through  the  lands 
of  the  United  States,  and  open  a  cheap  communication  to 
a  good  market,  such  lands  will  lise  in  value  for  twenty 
miles  on  each  side  of  the  canal.  The  farmer  who  will  re- 
side twenty  miles  from  the  canal  can,  in  one  day,  carry  a 
load  of  produce  to  its  borders ;  and  were  the  lands  six 
hundred  miles  from  one  of  our  seaport  towns,  his  barrel 
of  flour,  in  weight  two  hundred  pounds,  could  be  carried 
that  distance  for  sixty  cents,  the  price  which  is  now  paid 
to  carry  a  barrel  fifty  miles  on  the  Lancaster  turnpike. 
Consequently,  as  relates  to  cheapness  of  carriage  and  easy 
access  to  market,  the  new  lands,  which  lie  six  hundred 
miles  from  the  seaports,  would  be  of  equal  value  with 
lands  of  equal  fertility,  which  are  fifty  miles  from  the  sea- 
ports. But,  not  to  insist  on  their  being  of  so  great  a 
value,  until  population  is  as  great,  it  is  evident  that  they 
must  rise  in  value  in  a  three  or  fourfold  degree ;  every 
lineal  mile  of  canal  would  accommodate  25,600  acres  ;  the 
lands  sold  by  the  United  States  in  1806  averaged  about 
two  dollars  arr  acre,  and  certainly  every  acre  accom- 
modated with  a  canal  would  produce  six  dollars ;  thus, 
only  twenty  miles  of  canal,  each  year,  running  through 
national  lands,  would  raise  the  value  of  512,000  acres 
of  land  at  least  four  dollars  an  acre,  giving  two  million 
and  forty-three  dollars  to  the  treasury, — a  sum  sufficient 
to  make  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  miles  of  canal.  Had 
an  individual  such  a  property,  and  funds  to  construct 
canals  to  its  centre,  he  certainly  would  do  it  for  his  own 
interest.  The  nation  has  the  property.  And  the  nation 
possesses  ample  funds  for  such  undertakings. 

^'  Second,  on  their  effect  in  cementing  the  Union,  and 


CANALS, 


25 


extending  the  principles  of  confederated  republican  govern- 
ment, numerous  have  been  the  speculations  on  the  dura- 
tion of  our  Union,  and  intrigues  have  been  practised  to 
sever  the  Western  from  the  Eastern  States.  The  opinion 
endeavored  to  be  inculcated  was,  that  the  inhabitants 
behind  the  mountains  were  cut  off  from  the  market  of  the 
Atlantic  States  ;  that,  consequently,  they  had  a  separate 
interest,  and  should  use  their  resources  to  open  a  com- 
munication to  a  market  of  their  own ;  that,  remote  from 
the  seat  of  government,  they  could  not  enjoy  their  por- 
tion of  advantages  arising  from  the  Union,  and  that, 
sooner  or  later,  they  must  separate  and  govern  for  them- 
selves. 

Others,  by  drawing  their  examples  from  European 
governments,  and  the  monarchies  which  have  grown  out 
of  the  feudal  habits  of  nations  of  warriors,  whose  minds 
were  bent  to  the  absolute  power  of  the  few,  and  the  ser- 
vile obedience  of  the  many,  have  conceived  these  States 
of  too  great  an  extent  to  continue  united  under  a  republi- 
can form  of  government,  and  that  the  time  is  not  distant 
when  they  will  divide  into  little  kingdoms,  retrograding 
form  common-sense  to  ignorance,  adopting  all  the  follies 
and  barbarities  which  are  every  day  practised  in  the  king- 
doms and  petty  states  of  Europe.  But  those  who  have 
reasoned  in  this  way  have  not  reflected  that  men  are  the 
creatures  of  habit,  and  that  their  habits  as  well  as  their 
interests  may  be  so  combined  as  to  make  it  impossible  to 
separate  them  without  falling  back  into  a  state  of  barbar- 
ism. Although  in  ancient  times  some  specks  of  civiliza- 
tion have  been  efl'aced  by  hordes  of  uncultivated  men, 
yet  it  is  remarkable  that  since  the  invention  of  printing, 
and  general  diffusion  of  knowledge,  no  nation  has  retro- 
graded in  science  or  improvements  ;  nor  is  it  reasonable 


26 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


to  suppose  that  the  Americans,  who  have  as  much  if  not 
more  information  in  general  than  any  other  people,  will 
ever  abandon  an  advantage  which  they  have  once  gained. 
England,  which  at  one  time  was  seven  petty  kingdoms, 
has,  by  habit,  long  been  united  into  one.  Scotland,  by 
succession,  became  united  to  England,  and  is  now  bound 
to  her  by  habit,  by  turnpike-roads,  canals,  and  reciprocal 
interests.  In  like  manner  all  the  counties  of  England,  or 
departments  of  France,  are  bound  to  each  other  ;  and 
when  the  United  States  shall  be  bound  together  by 
canals,  by  cheap  and  easy  access  to  markets  in  all  direc- 
tions, by  a  sense  of  mutual  interest  arising  from  mutual 
intercourse  and  mingled  commerce,  it  will  be  no  more 
possible  to  split  them  into  independent  and  separate  gov- 
ernments, each  lining  its  frontiers  with  fortifications  and 
troops,  to  shackle  their  own  exports  and  imports  to  and 
form  the  neighboring  States,  than  it  is  now  possible  for 
the  government  of  England  to  divide  and  form  again  into 
seven  kingdoms.  But  it  is  necessary  to  bind  the  States 
together  by  the  people's  interest,  one  of  which  is  to  en- 
able every  man  to  sell  the  produce  of  his  labor  at  the  best 
market,  and  purchase  at  the  cheapest.  This  accords  with 
the  idea  of  Hume,  ^  that  the  government  of  a  wise  people 
would  be  little  more  than  a  system  of  civil  police  ;  for  the 
best  interest  of  man  is  industry,  and  a  free  exchange  of 
the  products  of  his  labor  for  the  things  which  he  may 
require.' 

On  this  humane  principle,  what  stronger  bonds  of  union 
can  be  invented,  than  those  which  enable  each  individual 
to  transport  the  produce  of  his  industry  i,200  miles  for 
sixty  cents  the  cwt.  ?  Here,  then,  is  a  certain  method  of 
securing  the  union  of  the  States,  and  of  rendering  it  as 
lasting  as  the  continent  we  inhabit. 


CANALS. 


27 


It  is  now  eleven  years  that  I  have  had  this  plan  in 
contemplation  for  the  good  of  our  country.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  my  work  on  small  canals,  there  is  a  letter  to 
Thomas  Mifflin,  then  Governor  of  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, on  a  system  of  canals  for  America.  In  it  I  con- 
templated the  time  when  *  canals  should  pass  through 
every  vale,  wind  around  every  hill,  and  bind  the  whole 
country  together  in  the  bonds  of  social  intercourse,'  and 
I  am  happy  to  find  that,  through  the  good  management 
of  a  wise  administration,  a  period  has  arrived  when  an 
overflowing  treasury  exhibits  abundant  resources,  and 
points  the  mind  to  works  of  such  immense  importance. 
Hoping  speedily  to  see  them  become  favorite  objects  with 
the  whole  American  people, 

I  have  the  honor  to  be. 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

Robert  Fulton." 

It  is  claimed  for  Mr.  Fulton  that  he  never  made 
a  model  until  he  had  first  completed  a  careful 
drawing  in  which  every  part  was  shown  in  detail 
and  projected  on  the  proper  scale.  In  every  thing 
relating  to  canals  and  roads  his  specifications  w^ere 
voluminous  and  covered  all  the  features  of  the  pro- 
posed work.  It  is  quite  likely  that  his  enthusiasm 
sometimes  carried  him  into  theories  that  were  not 
altogether  borne  out  by  facts  as  subsequently  de- 
veloped, but  in  this  respect  he  was  not  unlike  cer- 
tain engineers  of  later  days. 

Mr,   Reigart,   his  biographer,  claims   that  the 


28 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


earliest  notice  of  the  desirability  of  opening  a  com- 
munication between  the  Hudson  River  and  Lake 
Erie  was  in  a  letter  which  Mr.  Fulton  sent  to  the 
government  in  1807  in  answer  to  an  inquiry  con- 
cerning a  projected  canal  between  the  Mississippi 
River  and  Lake  Pontchartrain.  It  is  hardly  prob- 
able, however,  that  Fulton  was  the  originator  of 
the  Erie  Canal  project,  though  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  his  advocacy  of  the  enterprise  may  have 
advanced  it. 

In  the  spring  of  18 10  the  Legislature  of  New 
York  appointed  commissioners  to  examine  the 
route  and  report  upon  the  feasibility  of  the  work. 
They  reported  in  the  following  year,  when  Mr. 
Fulton  was  added  to  the  commission,  and  in  181 2 
a  second  report  was  made. 

In  18 14  he  addressed  a  long  letter  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  commission,  in  which  he  set  forth  the 
advantages  of  the  proposed  canal  and  the  great  dif- 
ference between  the  cost  of  transportation  in  boats 
and  that  of  the  old  method  by  wagons.  He  esti- 
mates that  on  a  canal  goods  can  be  carried  one 
hundred  miles  for  one  dollar  a  ton,  while  the  usual 
cost  of  wagoning  was  one  dollar  and  sixty  cents  per 
hundredweight  for  one  hundred  miles,  or  thirty-two 
dollars  a  ton.  It  consequently  follows,"  said  he, 
''that  on  a  canal  a  ton  weight  could  be  boated 
three  thousand  two  hundred  miles  for  the  sum  now 
paid  to  wagon  it  one  hundred  miles,  and  the  per- 


CANALS. 


29 


sons  at  three  thousand  two  hundred  miles  from  a 
good  seaport  would  have  all  the  advantages  of 
trade,  or  of  bringing  their  produce  to  market, 
which  those  who  reside  only  one  hundred  miles 
from  market  now  enjoy,  provided  the  canal  were 
toll  free." 

Fulton  advocated  the  construction  of  the  Erie 
Canal,  either  as  a  private  enterprise  by  a  company 
of  stockholders,  to  whom  he  thought  it  would  make 
a  handsome  return  for  their  investment,  or  as  a 
public  enterprise  to  be  paid  for  by  the  State.  In 
the  latter  case  he  favored  a  system  of  tolls  suffi- 
ciently large  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  canal  and  also 
make  a  surplus  which  should  be  expended  in 
other  canals,  bridges,  roads,  and  improvements.'' 
He  made  a  careful  computation  of  the  revenue  that 
might  be  derived  from  the  canal,  and  thought  it 
should  pay  for  itself  in  five  years  from  its  comple- 
tion. 

He  estimated  the  cost  at  $10,000,000.  The 
canal  was  begun  in  1817  and  finished  in  1825,  and 
the  total  cost  was  $6,700,000.  It  is  not  often  that 
the  estimate  of  the  engineer  falls  below  the  actual 
cost,  or  even  remains  within  it,  as  many  a  capitalist 
knows  to  his  sorrow. 

As  originally  constructed  the  canal  was  forty 
feet  wide  at  the  surface  and  twenty-eight  feet  at 
bottom,  with  a  depth  of  four  feet.  It  has  since  been 
enlarged  to  seventy  feet  at  surface  and  fifty-six  at 


30 


ROBERT  FULTON'. 


bottom,  with  a  depth  of  seven  feet.  In  their  re- 
port of  1811  the  commissioners  advocated  an  in- 
cHned  plane  from  Lake  Erie  to  a  reservoir  near  the 
Hudson,  with  a  descent  of  six  inches  to  the  mile 
for  three  hundred  miles,  by  making  mounds  and 
aqueducts  over  the  valleys  along  the  route.  From 
the  reservoir  to  the  Hudson  they  proposed  to  have 
a  series  of  locks,  so  that  all  the  lockage  on  the 
route  would  be  in  a  single  place.  After  Mr.  Ful- 
ton joined  the  commission  this  project  was  aban- 
doned, probably  through  his  advice,  though  this  is 
not  positively  known. 

Where  the  Shrewsbury  Canal  at  Long,  England, 
passes  over  the  Tern  valley  upon  an  aqueduct 
nearly  two  hundred  feet  in  length,  serious  damage 
was  caused  by  a  flood  in  the  spring  of  1795.  Mr. 
Fulton  was  at  Long  at  the  time  of  the  calamity, 
and  after  studying  the  canal  and  the  conditions  of 
its  construction,  he  prepared  drawings  and  plans 
for  building  canal  aqueducts  of  cast-iron  instead  of 
stone.  These  were  submitted  to  the  British  Board 
of  Agriculture  early  in  i  796,  together  with  plans, 
drawings,  and  models  of  bridges. 

His  plans  were  approved  and  adopted.  A  cast- 
iron  aqueduct  upon  the  Fulton  system  was  erected 
across  the  river  Dee  in  Scotland,  and  one  of  his 
bridges  was  built  at  Wandsworth.  The  dimensions 
of  the  bridge  are  not  given,  but  the  aqueduct  is 
thus  described  : 


32 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Nineteen  massive  conical  pillars  of  stone,  at  fifty- 
two  feet  from  each  other,  the  middlemost  of  which  is  no 
less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  feet  in  height,  sup- 
port between  the  top  of  every  pair  a  number  of  elliptical 
cast-iron  ribs,  which,  by  means  of  upright  and  horizontal 
bars,  support  a  cast-iron  aqueduct  about  three  hundred 
and  twenty-nine  yards  long,  twenty  feet  wide,  and  six  in 
depth,  composed  of  massive  sheets  of  cast-iron,  cemented 
and  riveted  together,  having  on  its  south  side  an  iron  plat- 
form and  railing  for  the  towing-path. 

It  was  foretold  that  the  effects  of  heat  and  cold  would 
destroy  it,  but  no  expansion  and  contraction  of  the  metal 
is  as  yet  visible  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  summer's  heat, 
the  winter's  ice,  and  numerous  floods,  this  cast-iron  aque- 
duct still  remains  an  evidence  of  Fulton's  practical  engi- 
neering."— Reigart,  p.  95. 

Other  inventions,  for  some  of  which  Robert 
Fulton  obtained  letters-patent  in  England,  v^ere  as 
follovirs  : 

A  mill  for  sav^ing  marble.  The  British  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Arts  and  Commerce  "  passed 
a  resolution  of  thanks  to  the  inventor  of  this  mill 
and  awarded  him  an  honorary  medal. 

A  machine  for  spinning  flax. 

A  dredging  machine  for  scooping  out  the  earth 
to  form  channels  or  aqueducts,  which  was  afterwards 
much  used  in  England. 

A  MARKET  or  PASSAGE  boat,  intended  for  canal 
navigation. 


AN  AMPHIBIOUS  BOAT, 


33 


A  DESPATCH  boat,  intended  for  similar  uses,  but  of 
greater  speed  than  the  preceding. 

A  TRADEP  or  amphibious  boat,  which  was  to 
be  used  on  canals  or  rivers,  and  was  capable  of  be- 
ing moved  for  short  distances  on  land.  According 
to  his  plans  it  was  twenty  feet  long,  four  wide,  and 
two  feet  ten  inches  deep  in  the  clear.  It  was  flat  at 
bottom  and  square  at  the  ends,  bolted  and  stayed  at 
the  corners,  and  had  two  ribs  or  knees  about  five 
feet  from  the  ends.  Two  timbers  running  the 
length  of  the  boat  gave  it  strength  to  prevent 
breaking  when  on  land  ;  it  was  supported  on 
wheels  about  ten  inches  in  diameter,  and  two  feet 
from  the  ends  of  the  boat,  and  each  pair  of  wheels 
and  its  axle  were  cast  in  one  piece.  The  wheels 
were  supported  in  brass  sockets  and  fastened  so  as 
to  remain  in  place  when  the  boat  was  in  the  water. 
The  wheels  w^ere  not  unlike  those  in  use  upon  rail- 
way trucks  in  the  feature  of  being  fastened  firmly 
to  the  axle  or  forming  a  part  of  it. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  a  full  account  of  Mr. 
Fulton's  movements  and  occupations  during  the 
latter  part  of  his  stay  in  England.  Just  previous  to 
his  return  to  America  he  sent  home  a  box  contain- 
ing many  of  his  manuscripts  and  drawings  ;  the 
vessel  that  brought  it  was  wrecked,  and  though  the 
box  was  afterwards  recovered,  many  of  the  papers 
it  contained  were  wholly  illegible,  while  the  few 


34 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


that  could  be  deciphered  were  read  with  great 
difficulty.  But  from  all  that  can  be  learned  it 
is  evident  that  from  the  time  he  became  actively  en- 
gaged in  mechanical  enterprises  he  gave  little  atten- 
tion to  painting  ;  by  far  the  greater  number  of  the 
works  of  his  brush,  of  which  any  trace  can  be  found, 
belong  to  the  early  period  of  his  life. 


CHAPTER  III. 


Fulton  in  Paris — Joel  Barlow — Experiments  with  torpedoes — Diving-boats 
— Proposals  to  the  French  Government — The  reply — Official  report  of 
experiments — Holland  and  England — Blowing  up  the  Dorothea. 

IN  1/97  Fulton  went  to  Paris  and  took  lodgings 
in  the  hotel  occupied  by  Joel  Barlow.  A  warm 
friendship  sprang  up  between  these  gentlemen  ; 
Mr.  Fulton  resided  for  several  years  in  Mr.  Bar- 
low's family,  and  the  two  seem  to  have  been  the 
closest  of  companions.  They  were  associated  in 
many  projects  and  enterprises  in  which  poesy, 
painting,  and  mechanics  were  indiscriminately 
mingled.  Mr.  Barlow  dedicated  his  Columbiad," 
a  national  and  historical  poem,  to  his  Friend, 
Robert  Fulton,"  and  the  latter  made  a  series  of 
illustrations  for  the  book,  which  was  published  at 
great  expense.  In  December  of  1797,  Fulton  and 
Barlow  made  an  experiment  on  the  Seine  with  a 
machine  constructed  by  the  former  ;  its  object  was 
to  impart  motion  to  cases  of  gunpowder  under 
water  to  certain  designated  points  where  they  were 
to  be  exploded.  They  had  high  hopes  concerning 
the  invention,  but  were  doomed  to  disappointment, 
as  the  machine  failed  to  do  what  was  expected  of  it. 


36 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Joel  Barlow  was  famous  in  his  time  as  a  poet  and 
politician  ;  he  was  born  in  Connecticut  in  1755, 
died  near  Cracow,  Poland,  in  1812.  From  1788 
till  1805  he  resided  abroad,  most  of  the  time  in 
France,  where  the  greater  part  of  his  literary  work 
was  performed.  He  is  best  known  by  his  humorous 
poem,  Hasty  Pudding,"  which  was  written  at 
Chambery,  while  he  was  a  member  of  a  French 
commission  to  organize  the  newly  acquired  territory 
of  Savoy.  His  more  pretentious  but  less  popular 
works  were  the  ''Vision  of  Columbus,"  ''Conspir- 
acy of  Kings,"  and  the  "  Columbiad  "  already  men- 
tioned. From  1805  till  181 1  he  lived  at  Washing- 
ton, whence  he  was  sent  as  Minister  of  the  United 
States  to  France.  He  had  a  high  reputation  for 
diplomatic  ability,  and  his  death  occurred  while  he 
was  on  a  journey  to  meet  the  Emperor  Napoleon 
at  Wilna,  by  express  invitation  of  the  great  soldier. 
On  his  deathbed  he  dictated  a  poem  which  assailed 
Napoleon  for  the  course  he  had  followed,  in  disap- 
pointing the  hopes  of  men  and  spreading  the  horrors 
of  war  through  Europe.*^ 

While  residing  with  Mr.  Barlow,  Fulton  learned 
French,  and  acquired  some  knowledge  of  German 
and  Italian  ;  he  also  studied  the  high  mathematics, 
chemistry,  and  other  branches  of  science  to  which 
his  attention  had  been  directed  in  his  mechanical 

*  See  "Life  and  Letters  of  Joel  Barlow,"  by  Charles  Burr  Todd,  pub- 
lished by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York. 


SUBMITS  PLANS  TO  THE  FRENCH  DIRECTORY.  37 


pui'suits.  His  study  of  chemistry  was  no  doubt 
brought  about  through  his  interest  in  torpedoes,  to 
which  he  seems  to  have  given  a  great  deal  of  time. 
In  spite  of  his  occupation  in  these  matters,  he  had 
sufficient  leisure  to  paint  a  panorama,  the  first  ever 
shown  in  Paris.  Mr.  Barlow  was  his  partner  in 
this  enterprise,  and  it  is  said  they  made  a  snug  sum 
of  money  by  its  exhibition. 

Though  disappointed  with  the  experiment  on 
the  waters  of  the  Seine  with  the  machine  mentioned, 
Mr.  Fulton  was  not  disheartened.  With  the  per- 
severance which  characterized  him,  he  continued 
his  studies  and  perfected  his  plans  to  his  entire 
satisfaction.  But  boats  cannot  be  built  without 
money,  and  the  inventor  did  not  possess  the  neces- 
sary funds  for  the  work  he  proposed.  He  addressed 
a  letter  to  the  French  Directory,  in  which  he  set 
forth  the  usefulness  of  his  invention  in  enabling  the 
Republic  to  rid  itself  of  oppressors,  and  when  the 
letter  was  presented,  it  was  received  with  words  of 
encouragement.  Day  after  day  he  went  to  the 
government  offices  to  learn  the  decision  upon  his 
project,  and  finally  was  informed  that  the  whole 
scheme  was  rejected  by  the  Directory. 

What  followed  is  best  told  in  the  words  of  Mr. 
Colden  : 

Mr.  Fulton  was  never  to  be  discouraged.  He  thought 
that  the  Directory  might  be  induced  to  change  their 
opinions,  or  that  there  might  be,  as  there  had  been,  a 


38 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


change  in  the  executive.  With  these  hopes  he  executed 
a  handsome  model  of  his  machine,  and  a  change  having 
taken  place  as  to  one  of  the  members  of  the  Directory,  he 
again  presented  his  plan,  and  a  commission  was  appointed 
to  examine  his  pretensions.  This  commission  made  a 
very  favorable  report,  but  after  another  three  months' 
attendance  on  the  Minister  of  the  Marine,  Mr.  Fulton  was 
greatly  disappointed  to  learn  that  his  plan  was  entirely 
rejected. 

Not  yet  discouraged,  he  offered  his  project  to  the 
Dutch  Government,  through  Mr.  Schemelpenick,  who  was 
then  at  Paris  as  ambassador  from  Holland.  A  commis- 
sioner was  in  consequence  appointed  by  the  executive 
directory  of  the  Batavian  Republic,  to  examine  his  modles  ; 
but  he  met  with  another  disappointment.  The  commis- 
sioners spoke  so  lukewarmly  of  his  propositions,  that  the 
Dutch  Government  would  not  give  him  sufficient  encour- 
agement. An  individual,  however,  of  that  nation,  Mr. 
Vanstaphast,  furnished  him  with  the  necessary  funds,  and 
he  proceeded  to  construct  his  machine.  When  it  was 
nearly  complete,  he  ag^in  addressed  the  Dutch  minister, 
who  appears  to  have  been  personally  friendly  to  his  plan. 
Mr.  Fulton  pressed  upon  him  the  advantages  which  his 
nation  might  derive  from  adopting  submarine  navigation. 
Neither  these  letters,  however,  nor  others,  which  he  ad- 
dressed at  the  same  time  to  the  Batavian  Executive,  ap- 
pear to  have  had  any  success. 

But  the  French  Government  changed.  Bonaparte 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  it,  with  the  title  of  First 
Consul. 

Mr.  Fulton  soon  presented  an  address  to  him,  solicit- 
ing him  to  patronize  the  project  for  submarine  navigation, 
and  praying  him  to  appoint  a  commission,  with  sufficient 
funds  and  powers  to  give  the  necessary  assistance.  This 


I.    7ulton*s  Submarine  Boat,  the  Nautilus,  in  the  Harbor  of  Brest. 
2.    Fulton's  Submarine  Boat,  the  Mute. 


40 


ROBER  T  J^  UL  TON, 


request  was  immediately  granted,  and  the  citizens  Volney 
La  Place,  and  Monge  were  named  the  commissioners. 

In  the  spring  of  1801,  Mr.  Fulton  repaired  to  Brest 
to  make  experiments  with  the  plunging-boat  he  had  con- 
structed the  preceding  winter.  This,  as  he  says,  had  many 
imperfections  natural  to  a  first  machine  of  such  compli- 
cated combinations.  Added  to  this,  it  had  suffered  much 
injury  from  rust,  in  consequence  of  his  having  been 
obliged  to  use  iron  instead  of  brass  or  copper  for  bolts 
and  arbors. 

Notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  he  engaged  in 
a  course  of  experiments  with  the  machine,  which  required 
no  less  courage  than  energy  and  perseverance.  Of  his 
proceedings,  he  made  a  report  to  the  committee  appointed 
by  the  French  Executive,  from  which  report  we  learn  the 
following  interesting  facts  : 

On  the  3d  of  July,  1801,  he  embarked  with  three  com- 
panies on  board  his  plunging-boat,  in  the  harbor  of  Brest, 
and  descended  in  it  to  the  depth  of  five,  ten,  fifteen,  and 
so  to  twenty-five  feet,  but  he  did  not  attempt  to  go 
lower,  because  he  found  that  his  imperfect  machine  would 
not  bear  the  pressure  of  a  greater  depth.  He  remained 
below  the  surface  one  hour.  During  this  time  they  were 
in  utter  darkness.  Afterwards  he  descended  with  candles, 
but  finding  a  great  disadvantage  from  their  consumption 
of  vital  air,  he  caused,  previously  to  his  next  experiment, 
a  small  window  of  thick  glass  to  be  made  near  the  bow  of 
his  boat,  and  he  again  descended  with  her  on  the  24th  of 
July,  1801.  He  found  that  he  received  from  this  window, 
or  rather  aperture  covered  with  glass,  for  it  was  no  more 
than  an  inch  and  a  half  in  diameter,  sufficient  light  to 
enable  him  to  count  the  minutes  on  his  watch.  Having 
satisfied  himself  that  he  could  have  sufficient  light  when 
under  water;  that  he  could  do  without  a  supply  of  fresh 


THE  PLUNGING-BOAT. 


41 


air  for  a  considerable  time ;  that  he  could  descend  to  any 
depth,  and  rise  to  the  surface  with  facility,  his  next  object 
was  to  try  her  movements  as  well  on  the  surface  as  be- 
neath it.  On  the  26th  of  July,  he  weighed  his  anchor 
and  hoisted  his  sails  ;  his  boat  had  one  mast,  a  mainsail, 
and  jib.  There  was  only  a  light  breeze,  and  therefore  she 
did  not  move  on  the  surface  at  more  than  the  rate  of  two 
miles  an  hour  ;  but  it  was  found  that  she  would  tack  and 
steer,  and  sail  on  a  wind  or  before  it,  as  well  as  any  com- 
mon sailing-boat.  He  then  struck  her  masts  and  sails,  to 
do  which,  and  perfectly  prepare  the  boat  for  plunging,  re- 
quired about  two  minutes.  Having  plunged  to  a  certain 
depth,  he  placed  two  men  at  the  engine,  which  was  in- 
tended to  give  her  progressive  motion,  and  one  at  the 
helm,  while  he,  with  a  barometer  before  him,  gov- 
erned the  machine,  which  kept  her  balanced  between  the 
upper  and  lower  waters.  He  found  that  with  the  exertion 
of  one  hand  only,  he  could  keep  her  at  any  depth  he 
pleased.  The  propelling  engine  was  then  put  in  motion, 
and  he  found,  upon  coming  to  the  surface,  that  he  had,  in 
about  seven  minutes^  made  a  progress  of  four  hundred 
metres,  or  about  five  hundred  yards.  He  then  again 
plunged,  turned  her  round  while  under  water,  and  re- 
turned to  near  the  place  he  began  to  move  from.  He 
repeated  his  experiment  several  days  successively,  until 
he  became  familiar  with  the  operation  of  the  machinery 
and  the  movements  of  the  boat.  He  found  that  she  was 
as  obedient  to  her  helm  under  water  as  any  boat  could  be 
on  the  surface,  and  that  the  magnetic  needle  traversed  as 
well  in  the  one  situation  as  the  other. 

On  the  seventh  of  August,  Mr.  Fulton  again  descended 
with  a  store  of  atmospheric  air  compressed  into  a  copper 
globe  of  a  cubic  foot  capacity,  into  which  two  hundred 
atmospheres  were  forced.    Thus  prepared  he  descended 


42 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


with  three  companions  to  the  depth  of  about  five  feet.  At 
the  expiration  of  an  hour  and  forty  minutes,  he  began 
to  take  small  supplies  of  pure  air  from  his  reservoir,  and 
did  so  as  he  found  occasion,  for  four  hours  and  twenty 
minutes.  At  the  expiration  of  this  time  he  came  to  the 
surface,  without  having  experienced  any  inconvenience 
from  having  been  so  long  under  water. 

Mr.  Fulton  was  highly  satisfied  with  the  success  of 
these  experiments  ;  it  determined  him  to  attempt  to  try 
the  effects  of  these  inventions  on  the  English  ships,  which 
were  then  blockading  the  coast  of  France,  and  were  daily 
near  the  harbor  of  Brest. 

His  boat  at  this  time  he  called  the  submarine  boat,  or 
the  plunging-boat  ;  he  afterwards  gave  it  the  name  of 
the  Nautilus.  Connected  with  this  machine  were  what  he 
then  called  submarine  bombs,  to  which  he  has  since  given 
the  name  of  torpedoes.  This  invention  preceded  the 
Nautilus.  It  was,  indeed,  his  desire  of  discovering  the 
means  of  applying  his  torpedoes  that  turned  his  thoughts 
to  a  submarine  boat.  Satisfied  with  the  performance  of  his 
boat,  his  next  object  was  to  make  some  experiments  with 
the  torpedoes.  A  small  shallop  was  anchored  in  the  roads 
with  a  bomb  containing  about  twenty  pounds  of  powder  ; 
he  approached  to  within  about  two  hundred  yards  of  the 
anchored  vessel,  struck  her -with  the  torpedo,  and  blew  her 
into  atoms.  A  column  of  water  and  fragments  was  blown 
from  eighty  to  one  hundred  feet  in  the  air.  This  experi- 
ment was  made  in  the  presence  of  the  prefect  of  the 
department,  Admiral  Villaret,  and  a  multitude  of  spec- 
tators." 

Mr.  Fulton  planned  another  and  larger  boat  for 
submarine  purposes,  but  it  was  never  constructed, 
owing  to  the  lack  of  funds  and  the  unwillingness  of 


THE  PLUNGING-BOAT, 


43 


the  French  Government  to  appropriate  the  amount 
needed.  Some  of  the  French  officers  were  enthu- 
siastic over  his  plans.  One  of  them,  St.  Aubin, 
wrote  as  follows  concerning  the  proposed  craft : 

"  The  diving-boat  will  be  capacious  enough  to  contain 
eight  men  and  provision  for  twenty  days,  and  will  be 
of  sufificient  strength  and  power  to  enable  him  to  plunge 
one  hundred  feet  under  water,  if  necessary.  He  has  con- 
trived a  reservoir  of  air,  which  will  enable  eight  men  to  re- 
main under  water  eight  hours.  When  the  boat  is  above 
water,  it  has  two  sails,  and  looks  just  Hke  a  common  boat ; 
when  it  is  to  dive,  the  mast  and  sails  are  struck. 

In  making  his  experiments,  Mr.  Fulton  not  only  re- 
mained a  whole  hour  under  w^ater,  w^ith  three  of  his  com- 
panions, but  had  the  boat  parallel  to  the  horizon  at  any 
given  distance.  He  proved  that  the  compass  points  as 
correctly  under  water  as  on  the  surface,  and  that,  while 
under  water,  the  boat  made  way  at  the  rate  of  half  a 
league  an  hour,  by  means  contrived  for  that  purpose. 

It  is  not  twenty  years  since  all  Europe  was  astonished 
at  the  first  ascension  of  men  in  balloons  :  perhaps,  in  a  few 
years,  they  will  not  be  less  surprised  to  see  a  flotilla  of 
diving-boats,  which,  on  a  given  signal,  shall,  to  avoid  the 
pursuit  of  an  enemy,  plunge  under  water,  and  rise  again 
several  leagues  from  the  place  where  they  descended  ! 

But  if  we  have  not  succeeded  in  steering  the  balloon, 
and  even  were  it  impossible  to  attain  that  object  the 
case  is  different  with  the  diving-boat,  which  can  be  con- 
ducted under  water  in  the  same  manner  as  upon  the  sur- 
face. It  has  the  advantage  of  sailing  like  the  common 
boat,  and  also  of  diving  when  it  is  pursued.  With  these 
qualities,  it  is  fit  for  carrying  secret  orders,  to  succor  a 
blockaded  fort,  and  to  examine  the  force  and  position  of 


44 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


an  enemy  in  their  harbors.  These  are  sure  and  evident 
benefits  which  the  diving-boat  at  present  promises.  But 
who  can  see  all  the  consequences  of  this  discovery,  or  the 
improvements  of  which  it  is  susceptible  ?  Mr.  Fulton  has 
already  added  to  his  boat  a  machine  by  means  of  which  he 
blew  up  a  large  boat  in  the  port  of  Brest ;  and  if,  by 
future  experiments,  the  same  effect  could  be  produced  in 
frigates  or  ships  of  the  line,  what  will  become  of  maritime 
wars,  and  where  will  sailors  be  found  to  man  ships  of  war, 
when  it  is  a  physical  certainty  that  they  may  at  any 
moment  be  blown  into  air  by  means  of  diving-boats, 
against  which  no  human  foresight  can  guard  them  ?  " 

The  diving-boat  was  really  an  adjunct  of  the 
torpedo,  as  its  principal  object  was  to  furnish  a 
means  whereby  submarine  explosions  could  be 
managed  for  the  destruction  of  an  enemy's  ships. 
This  system  of  warfare  had  its  beginning  in  1585 
at  Antwerp,  when  powder-vessels  were  set  afloat 
on  the  Scheldt,  with  the  object  of  destroying 
the  ships  of  the  besiegers.  For  nearly  tw^o  hun- 
dred years  after  that  time  very  little  seems  to  have 
been  done  in  the  way  of  experiment  in  this  direc- 
tion. During  the  American  Revolution,  David 
Bushnell,  a  native  of  Connecticut  and  a  captain  of 
engineers,  conceived  the  idea  of  a  submarine  boat 
which  should  be  used  to  place  a  case  containing 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  gunpowder  be- 
neath a  ship  and  explode  it  by  means  of  clock- 
work. His  models  worked  to  satisfaction,  but  such 
was  not  the  result  with  the  actual  machine. 


DIVING-BOA  T. 


45 


The  boat  was  constructed  under  Bushnell's  super- 
vision, and  the  case,  with  its  powder  and  clock-work, 
was  made  ready.  Bushnell  wished  to  direct  the  af- 
fair in  person,  but  General  Washington  would  not 
consent  to  risk  the  life  of  the  captain  on  an  expe- 
dition that  was  perilous  in  the  extreme.  Sergeant 
Ezra  Lee,  also  a  native  of  Connecticut,  volunteered 
for  the  enterprise,  and  on  a  dark  night  in  August, 
1776,  the  attempt  was  made  to  blow  up  the  British 
ship  Eagle,  then  lying  in  New  York  harbor  and 
carrying  the  flag  of  Lord  Howe.  The  plan  was  to 
attach  the  case  of  powder  to  the  bottom  of  the 
Eagle  by  means  of  a  screw,  and  when  it  was  prop- 
erly attached  the  clock-work  was  to  be  set  in  motion. 
It  was  made  to  run  half  an  hour  before  exploding, 
and  this  half  hour  would  be  ample  to  enable  the 
operator  to  get  to  a  safe  distance. 

Lee  had  no  difficulty  in  getting  where  he  wished 
to  go — beneath  the  bottom  of  the  ship.  But  he 
found  the  copper  sheathing  of  the  Eagle  was  so 
thick  that  he  could  not  attach  the  screw,  and  after 
working  at  the  job  for  two  hours  he  gave  it  up  in 
despair.  Then  he  tried  other  vessels  with  a  like 
result,  and,  as  morning  approached,  he  came  to  the 
surface  not  far  from  some  barges  belonging  to  the 
British  forces.  Then  he  descended  again,  started 
the  clock-work,  and  pulled  to  the  shore,  where  he 
was  received  and  congratulated  by  General  Wash- 
ington for  his  bravery.    The  powder  exploded  close 


46 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


to  the  flag-ship,  and  threw  a  great  column  of  water 
far  into  the  air. 

The  Eagle  and  other  vessels  of  the  British  fleet 
cut  their  cables  and  drifted  with  the  tide  towards 
Staten  Island.  None  of  them  were  injured,  but 
the  attempt  of  the  Yankees  made  their  officers  ex- 
ceedingly cautious  during  the  rest  of  the  war.  For 
the  remainder  of  their  stay  in  New  York  they  were 
very  prudent  in  their  movements  and  chary  about 
their  anchorage. 

Fulton  was  probably  well  acquainted  with  the 
exploit  of  Bushnell,  as  he  seems  to  have  started 
with  his  own  experiments  at  the  point  where  his 
predecessor  stopped.  He  was  the  first  to  apply 
the  name  ''torpedo"  to  this  particular  instrument 
of  warfare,  and  since  his  time  the  name  has  ad- 
hered to  it. 

It  is  a  curious  circumstance  that  Fulton  was  a 
believer  in  universal  peace,  and  he  seems  to  have 
been  animated  by  a  desire  to  see  the  day  when 
armies  and  navies  would  be  no  more  needed.  To 
this  end  he  proposed  to  invent  the  means  of  de- 
stroying ships  of  war  so  that  navies  would  be  no 
longer  possible,  and  by  so  doing  he  hoped  to  secure 
the  free  navigation  of  the  ocean  for  all  nations  of 
the  globe.  In  1810  he  published  a  book  entitled 
''Torpedo  War."  It  bore  on  its  title-page  the 
motto  "  The  liberty  of  the  seas  will  be  the  happi- 
ness of  the  earth."    In  his  arguments  before  the 


DIVING-BOAT, 


47 


officials  of  France,  England,  and  the  United  States 
he  invariably  pressed  his  point  that  the  seas  would 
be  made  free  by  the  adoption  of  his  invention. 

The  English  Government  heard  of  the  experi- 
ments which  Fulton  was  making  in  France  with  his 
diving-boat  and  torpedoes,  and  there  was  great 
uneasiness  in  consequence.  The  British  ministry 
held  several  consultations  on  the  subject  and  de- 
termined to  induce  this  dangerous  inventor  to 
leave  France  and  take  up  his  residence  in  England. 
Lord  Sidmouth  communicated  with  Fulton  in 
Paris,  and  arranged  for  him  to  meet  a  British  Gov- 
ernment agent  at  Amsterdam.  Accordingly  Mr. 
Fulton  went  to  the  Dutch  capital  in  October,  1803, 
and  after  waiting  vainly  three  months  for  the 
British  agent,  returned  to  Paris.  While  in  Hol- 
land he  occupied  his  time  in  making  improvments 
in  his  plans,  and  sketching  the  Hollanders  and 
their  quaint  costumes.  Many  of  his  sketches  are 
in  the  nature  of  caricatures,  and  show  that  he  was 
not  lacking  in  humor. 

The  agent  who  had  failed  to  meet  him  in  Am- 
sterdam came  to  Paris,  bringing  a  letter  from  Lord 
Hawkesbury  to  Mr.  Fulton,  in  which  the  invitation 
to  visit  London  was  made  in  the  most  flattering 
terms.  Fulton  reached  the  British  capital  in  May, 
1804,  and  found  that  Lord  Sidmouth  had  retired 
from  office  and  the  ministry  was  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Pitt.    Though  the  new  ministry  was  not  par- 


48 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


ticularly  friendly  with  the  old,  it  approved  all  that 
had  been  done  in  negotiation  with  Mr.  Fulton,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  he  was  called  to  a  personal 
audience  with  Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Melville.  Fulton 
displayed  his  drawings  and  explained  their  mean- 
ing, and  the  ministers  listened  very  attentively- 
When  he  was  through,  Mr.  Pitt  remarked  that  if 
the  torpedo  was  introduced  into  practice  it  could 
not  fail  to  annihilate  all  military  marines." 

Pitt  and  other  statesmen  were  disposed  to  en- 
courage the  invention,  which  would  give  England 
the  supremacy  of  the  seas  if  she  could  keep  the  in- 
vention in  her  own  hands,  but  this  view  was  not 
shared  by  all.  The  Lord  High  Admiral  denounced 
Mr.  Pitt  for  encouraging  a  mode  of  warfare  which 
those  who  commanded  the  seas  did  not  want,  and 
which,  if  successful,  would  wrest  the  trident  from 
those  who  then  claimed  to  bear  it  as  the  sceptre  of 
supremacy  on  the  ocean.'' 

The  British  ministry  appointed  a  commission  to 
examine  the  invention  and  report.  The  commis- 
sioners were  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  Mr.  Cavendish,  Sir 
Home  Popham,  Major  Congreve,  and  Mr.  John 
Rennie.  They  took  plenty  of  time  for  their  delib- 
erations, and  finally  reported  that  the  submarine 
boat  was  impracticable. 

The  torpedo  without  the  submarine  boat  was 
worthy  of  consideration,  and  Mr.  Fulton  was  au- 
thorized to  blow  up  the  French  fleet  in  Boulogne 


DIVING-BOA  T, 


49 


harbor.  He  made  the  attempt,  but  the  torpedoes 
exploded  harmlessly  at  the  side  of  the  French  ves- 
sels. The  inventor  was  able  to  explain,  as  are 
most  inventors  under  similar  circumstances,  why 
the  experiment  did  not  succeed.  But  the  inci- 
dent could  not  fail  to  damage  his  prospects  mate- 
rially. 

In  October,  )8o5,  he  blew  up  the  Danish  brig 
Dorothea,  a  vessel  of  two  hundred  tons,  that  had  been 
provided  by  the  British  Government  for  the  experi- 
ment. It  was  anchored  in  Walmar  Roads,  near 
Deal,  and  not  far  from  Walmar  Castle,  the  resi- 
dence of  Mr.  Pitt.  The  Prime  Minister  and  a  large 
number  of  naval  officers  were  present,  and  the  af- 
fair, in  theatrical  parlance,  was  a  complete  success. 

The  Dorothea  was  anchored  in  a  tide-way.  She 
drew  twelve  feet  of  water,  and  the  current  flowing 
beneath  her  was  quite  strong.  Fulton  prepared 
two  cylindrical  cases  connected  by  a  line  eighty 
feet  long.  One  of  the  cases  contained  sand  and 
the  other  was  filled  with  one  hundred  and  seventy 
pounds  of  powder,  which  was  to  be  exploded  by 
clock-work  similar  to  that  of  Bushnell's  torpedo, 
already  described.  The  cases  were  thrown  simul- 
taneously from  two  boats  seventy-five  feet  apart  in 
such  a  way  that  they  drifted  across  the  hawser  by 
which  the  Dorothea  was  anchored.  When  the  line 
struck  the  hawser,  the  torpedoes,  which  had  been 
balanced  to  float  at  a  depth  of  fifteen  feet,  were 


so 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


swung  around  and  carried  by  the  tide  directly  be- 
neath the  ship.  The  explosion  occurred  exactly  as 
Fulton  had  planned.  In  a  letter  to  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  dated  October  i6,  i8o5,  the  inventor  gives 
the  following  account  of  the  affair  : 

'^Yesterday  about  four  o'clock  I  made  the  intended  ex- 
periment on  the  brig  with*  a  carcass  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy  pounds  of  powder,  and  I  have  the  pleasure  to  in- 
form you  that  it  succeeded  beyond  my  most  sanguine  ex- 
pectations. Exactly  in  fifteen  minutes  from  the  time  of 
drawing  the  peg  and  throwing  the  carcass  in  the  water  the 
explosion  took  place.  It  lifted  the  brig  almost  bodily  and 
broke  her  completely  in  two.  The  ends  sank  imme- 
diately, and  in  one  minute  nothing  was  to  be  seen  of  her 
but  floating  fragments.  Her  mainmast  and  pumps  were 
thrown  into  the  sea,  her  foremast  was  broken  in  three  pieces, 
her  beams  and  knees  were  thrown  from  her  deck  and  sides, 
and  her  deck-planks  were  rent  in  fibres.  In  fact,  her  anni- 
hilation was  complete,  and  the  effect  was  most  extraordi- 
nary. The  power,  as  I  had  calculated,  passed  in  a  right 
line  through  her  body — that  being  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance— and  carried  all  before  it.  At  the  time  of  her  going 
up,  she  did  not  appear  to  make  more  resistance  than  a  bag 
of  feathers,  and  went  to  pieces  like  a  shattered  egg-shell." 

The  ministry  was  a  long  while  in  deciding  upon 
Fulton's  invention,  and  the  inventor  waited  some- 
what impatiently  for  the  result.  It  was  finally  de- 
termined that  it  would  be  impolitic  for  the  greatest 
maritime  power  in  the  world  to  introduce  into  naval 
warfare  a  system  that  would  place  her  on  a  level  with 
weaker  nations,  and,  consequently,  the  proposals  of 


52 


ROLERT  FULTON. 


Fulton  were  declined.  A  commission  suggested  that 
he  should  receive  an  ample  reward  for  his  trouble 
and  expense,  on  condition  that  his  torpedo  system 
should  be  suppressed,  and  neither  England  nor 
any  other  country  be  allowed  to  adopt  it.  In  re- 
ply, Mr.  Fulton  declared  that  he  could  not  accept 
the  proposal  on  any  terms.  His  answer  contained 
the  following  paragraph  : 

*'  At  all  events,  whatever  may  be  your  award,  I  never 
will  consent  to  let  these  inventions  lie  dormant  should  my 
country  at  any  time  have  need  of  them.  Were  you  to 
grant  me  the  annuity  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  a  year, 
I  would  sacrifice  all  to  the  safety  and  independence  of  my 
cou  ntry." 

A  letter  to  Lord  Granville  on  the  same  subject 
concluded  with  these  emphatic  words  : 

"  It  never  has  been  my  intention  to  hide  these  inven- 
tions from  the  world,  on  any  consideration.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  has  ever  been  my  intention  to  make  them  public 
as  soon  as  may  be  consistent  with  strict  justice  to  all 
with  whom  I  am  concerned.  For  myself,  I  have  ever 
considered  the  interest  of  America,  free  commerce,  the 
interest  of  mankind,  the  magnitude  of  the  object  in  view, 
and  the  rational  reputation  connected  with  it,  superior  to 
all  calculations  of  a  pecuniary  nature." 

In  September,  1806,  Fulton  wrote  as  follows 
to  Mr. , Barlow,  who  was  then  in  America,  supervis- 
ing the  publication  of  the  Columbiad." 

My  arbitration  is  finished,  and  I  have  been  allowed 
the  i^io,ooo  which  I  had  received,  with  £^^,000  salary, 


54 


ROBERT  FULTON-, 


total  1 5,000,  though  i^i,6oo  which  I  have  received  on 
settHng  accounts  will  just  square  all  old  debts  and  expenses 
in  London,  and  leave  me  about  i^200.  My  situation  now 
is,  my  hands  are  free  to  burn,  sink,  and  destroy  whom  I 
please,  and  I  shall  now  seriously  set  about  giving  liberty 
to  the  seas  by  publishing  my  system  of  attack.  I  have,  or 
will  have,  when  Mr.  Parker  sends  my  two  thousand  pounds, 
500  sterling  a  year,  with  a  steam-engine  and  pictures  worth 
two  thousand  pounds.  Therefore  I  am  not  in  a  state  to 
be  pitied.  I  am  now  busy  winding  up  every  thing,  and 
will  leave  London  about  the  23d  inst.  for  Falmouth,  from 
whence  I  shall  sail  in  the  packet  the  first  week  in  October, 
and  be  with  you,  I  hope,  in  November,  perhaps  about  the 
14th,  my  birthday,  so  you  must  have  a  roast  goose  ready. 
Do  not  write  me  again  after  receiving  this.  The  packet, 
being  well  manned  and  provided,  will  be  more  commodious 
and  safe  for  an  autumn  passage,  and  I  think  there  will  be 
little  or  no  risk  ;  at  least,  I  prefer  taking  all  the  risk  there 
is  to  idling  here  a  winter.  But  although  there  is  not 
much  risk,  yet  accidents  may  happen,  and  that  the  produce 
of  my  studies  and  experience  may  not  be  lost  to  my  coun- 
try, 1  have  made  out  a  complete  set  of  drawings  and 
descriptions  of  my  whole  system  of  submarine  attack,  and 
another  set  of  drawings  with  description  of  the  steamboat. 
These,  with  my  will,  I  shall  put  in  a  tin  cylinder,  sealed, 
and  leave  them  in  the  care  of  General  Lyman,  not  to  be 
opened  unless  I  am  lost.  Should  such  an  event  happen, 
I  have  left  you  the  means  to  publish  these  works,  with  en- 
gravings, in  a  handsome  manner,  and  to  which  you  will 
add  your  ow^n  ideas — showing  how  the  liberty  of  the  seas 
may  be  gained  by  such  means,  and  with  such  liberty,  the 
immense  advantages  to  America  and  civilization  ;  you  will 
also  show  the  necessity  of  perfecting  and  establishing  the 
steamboat  and  canals  on  the  inclined-plane  principle.  I 


DIVING-BOAT. 


55 


have  sent  you  three  hundred  complete  sets  of  prints  for 
the  '  Columbiad  '  by  the  Orb,  directed  to  Mr.  Tolman, 
New  York,  value  ^^"30.  As  the  transport  by  land  to  Phila- 
delphia will  not  be  much,  I  have  sent  them  by  this  oppor- 
tunity, that  they  may  arrive  before  the  law  for  prohibiting 
such  things  is  in  force,  and  that  the  shipment  and  risk 
may  not  approach  too  near  to  winter.  All  my  pictures, 
prints,  and  other  things,  I  mean  to  leave  here,  to  be 
shipped  in  spring  vessels,  about  April  next,  when  the  risk 
will  be  inconsiderable.  How  shall  we  manage  this  winter, 
as  you  must  be  in  Philadelphia  for  the  printing,  and 
I  want  to  be  at  New  York  to  build  my  boat  ?  I  am  in  ex- 
cellent health,  never  better,  and  good  spirits.  You  know 
I  cannot  exist  without  a  project  or  projects,  and  I  have 
two  or  three  of  the  first  order  of  sublimity.  As  all  your 
prints  are  soldered  up  I  do  not  see  how  I  can  leave  the 
number  you  desire  with  Phillips  (the  English  publisher), 
but  as  I  leave  the  plates  with  Mr.  West  the  necessary 
number  can  be  struck  off  when  the  sheets  arrive.  We  will 
talk  of  this  in  America.  Mr.  West  has  been  retouching 
my  pictures :  they  are  charming." 


CHAPTER  IV. 


Fulton  returns  to  America — Plans  for  torpedo  warfare — An  amusing  inci- 
dent at  a  lecture — Blowing  up  a  brig  at  anchor — Attack  upon  the  sloop- 
of-war,  Argus — Submarine  guns  and  their  execution — Development  of 
torpedo  warfare  from  Fulton's  time  to  the  present. 

IN  October,  1806,  Fulton  embarked  at  Falmouth 
by  way  of  Halifax  for  New  York,  where  he 
arrived  on  the  13th  of  December.  He  soon  after 
went  to  Washington  and  laid  his  plans  for  torpedo 
warfare  before  the  administration  ;  they  were  favor- 
ably received,  and  a  small  appropriation  was  made 
to  enable  him  to  try  experiments  with  his  novel 
machines.  He  returned  to  New  York,  and  while 
preparing  his  materials  he  announced  a  lecture 
upon  torpedoes,  to  which  the  Mayor  and  many 
prominent  citizens  were  invited.  His  audience 
was  deeply  interested  as  he  exhibited  the  copper 
cylinders  which  were  to  contain  the  powder,  and 
the  clockwork  to  cause  the  explosions.  At  length 
he  turned  to  a  case  to  which  one  of  the  locks  was 
attached,  and  drawing  out  a  peg  said  :  Gentlemen, 
this  is  a  charged  torpedo  with  which,  precisely  in 
its  present  state,  I  intend  to  blow  up  a  vessel.  It 
contains  one  hundred  and  seventy  pounds  of  pow- 


BLOWING  UP  A  BRIG, 


57 


der,  and  if  I  were  to  allow  the  clockwork  to  run 
fifteen  minutes,  it  would  blow  us  all  to  atoms." 

His  audience  drew  back  very  quickly,  and  within 
five  minutes  Fulton  was  standing  alone.  He  calmly 
replaced  the  peg  and  stopped  the  clockwork,  but  he 
could  not  reassemble  his  auditors  until  they  were 
assured  that  the  dangerous  case  had  been  returned 
to  the  magazine,  and  even  then  some  of  them  de- 
clined to  listen  further.  It  is  not  surprising  that  they 
acted  as  they  did,  and  the  coolness  of  the  inventor 
under  the  circumstances  is  an  indication  of  his  con- 
fidence that  every  thing  was  under  perfect  control. 

On  the  20th  of  July,  1807,  he  made  the  first 
of  the  experiments  authorized  by  the  United  States 
Government  and  blew  up  the  hulk  of  a  brig  that 
had  been  given  to  him  for  that  purpose.  The 
machinery  failed  to  operate  to  his  satisfaction,  and 
the  explosion  did  not  take  place  until  after  repeated 
efforts,  and  some  hours  later  than  the  time  ap- 
pointed for  it.  A  large  crowd  had  assembled  to 
witness  the  explosion,  and  when  it  did  come  off, 
the  greater  part  of  the  spectators  had  retired  disap- 
pointed. The  failure  was  due  to  the  following 
circumstance  which  Fulton  explained  in  his  book 
upon  torpedo  warfare  : 

He  had  tried  his  torpedoes  in  a  tub  of  water  till 
they  were  properly  balanced  for  floating  in  the 
desired  position,  but  he  had  done  this  without  the 
locks,  which  were  by  no  means  light.     When  the 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


locks  were  attached,  and  the  torpedoes  were  thrown 
into  the  water  preparatory  to  floating  against  the 
hulk,  the  additional  weight  caused  them  to  turn 
over.  The  consequence  was  that  when  the  hammer 
of  the  lock  drove  up  the  pan  the  priming  powder 
fell  out,  and  the  spark  from  the  flint  failed  to  per- 
form its  work.  Percussion  locks  had  not  then 
been  invented,  and  were  practically  unknown  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  afterwards.  Of 
course  it  was  necessary  to  readjust  the  machines, 
and  the  readjustment  required  considerable  time. 

Fulton's  experiments  with  torpedoes  were  con- 
tinued at  different  times  for  several  years,  but  their 
success  was  not  sufficient  to  induce  the  govern- 
ment to  make  large  expenditures  for  the  adoption 
of  the  system.  His  plans  included  four  kinds  of 
torpedoes,  of  which  one  may  be  considered  defen- 
sive and  three  off'ensive.  The  defensive  torpedo 
was  intended  for  anchoring  in  a  harbor  or  river  in 
such  a  position  that  an  enemy's  vessel  striking 
against  it  would  cause  an  explosion.  The  offen- 
sive torpedoes  were  drifting  machines  like  that 
used  in  the  destruction  of  the  Dorothea  ;  harpoon- 
torpedoes  which  were  to  be  attached  to  harpoons 
and  thrown  from  small  cannon,  so  that  they  would 
attach  themselves  to  the  enemy's  vessels  where  they 
would  be  exploded  by  clockwork  ;  and  spar  torpe- 
does, attached  to  spars  carried  by  vessels  of  pecul- 
iar construction,  and  projected  against  the  ships 
doomed  to  be  destroyed. 


Fulton's  Torpedo  System. 


6o 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


The  government  authorities  arranged  for  a  trial 
of  the  offensive  torpedoes  upon  the  sloop-of-war 
Argus,  under  command  of  Captain  Lawrence.  Mr. 
Fulton  explained  to  that  officer  his  mode  of  attack, 
and  the  Argus  was  at  once  put  in  trim  to  make 
proper  defence.  A  strong  netting  was  attached  to 
the  sprit-sail  yard  and  anchored  at  the  bottom,  and 
the  ship  was  enclosed  in  a  pen  made  by  lashing 
spars  together.  No  boat  could  reach  the  side  of 
the  ship  without  entering  this  pen,  and  the  defen- 
ders were  provided  with  grappling  irons  with  which 
to  seize  and  detain  an  assailing  craft.  They  had 
pieces  of  iron  suspended  from  the  rigging  and 
ready  to  be  dropped  into  any  boat  coming  beneath 
them,  and  they  had  scythes  fastened  to  the  ends  of 
poles  by  which  the  heads  of  a  boat's  crew  could  be 
cut  off.  Then  there  were  muskets,  and  the  other 
small-arms  of  the  day,  and  altogether  it  was  evident 
that  Fulton  and  his  eight  oarsmen  would  fare 
badly  in  case  of  real  warfare  of  this  sort.  He  ac- 
knowledged his  inability  to  make  any  impression 
upon  the  Argus  under  such  circumstances,  but  con- 
tended that  an  invention  which  compelled  every 
hostile  vessel  entering  our  ports  to  make  such 
elaborate  preparations  for  defence  could  not  fail  to 
be  of  great  importance.  In  this  view  several  of 
the  gentlemen  who  had  been  appointed  to  witness 
the  experiment  heartily  concurred. 

No  attack  was  made  upon  the  Argus  at  the  time 


SUBMARINE  GUNS, 


6i 


appointed  beyond  an  attempt  to  use  the  harpoon- 
torpedo  and  a  trial  of  a  new  invention  which  Mr. 
Fulton  called  a  cable-cutter.  The  harpoon-torpedo 
was  fired  from  a  small  canon,  but  it  was  found  to 
be  of  less  range  than  had  been  expected,  and  be- 
sides it  did  not  attach  itself  to  the  side  of  the 
vessel  as  its  inventor  had  hoped.  The  cable-cutter 
was  a  floating  torpedo  intended  to  attach  itself  to 
the  cable  of  an  anchored  vessel  and  cut  it  by  means 
of  an  explosion.  Anchor  chains,  such  as  we  have 
at  the  present  day,  were  not  then  in  use,  the  hem- 
pen cable  being  almost  universally  employed  for 
anchoring  ships  of  whatever  tonnage.  After  re- 
peated experiments,  Fulton  succeeded  in  cutting 
off*  a  cable  fourteen  inches  in  diameter  underwater, 
but  the  assailants  were  so  much  exposed  during  the 
performance  that  it  was  deemed  of  no  use  in  actual 
warfare.  The  commission  did  not  report  favorably 
upon  it,  and  the  Government  declined  to  adopt  the 
apparatus. 

The  result  of  these  experiments  gave  Fulton  the 
idea  of  firing  guns  under  water,  and  he  made  elab- 
orate calculations  to  ascertain  the  resistance  of  a 
ball  of  given  dimensions  with  a  given  initial  veloci- 
ty. As  the  basis  of  his  calculations  he  assumed 
that  a  body  passing  through  water  would  meet  the 
same  resistance  as  the  force  required  for  a  column 
of  water  of  the  same  diameter  moving  with  the 
same  velocity.    Then  following  the  rules  of  hy- 


62 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


draulics,  he  prepared  his  estimates,  and  found  by 
actual  experiment  he  was  not  far  out  of  the  way. 

He  tried  a  four-pound  cannon  having  the  breech 
and  half  its  length  enclosed  in  a  water-tight  box, 
from  which  the  muzzle,  carefully  stopped  with  a 
tompion,  projected.  The  box  was  then  placed  in 
the  water  so  that  the  cannon  was  three  feet  below 
the  surface,  and  the  gun  was  fired  by  dropping  a 
coal  of  fire  into  a  tin  tube  that  terminated  at  the 
vent.  The  ball  struck  the  sand  at  the  bottom  of 
the  river  forty-one  feet  from  the  muzzle,  and  the 
gun  was  not  injured  in  the  least.  He  next  tried 
the  same  cannon  charged  with  a  pound  and  a  half 
of  powder  and  fired  by  one  of  his  water-tight  locks 
at  a  distance  of  three  feet  below  the  surface.'  The 
ball  penetrated  to  a  depth  of  eleven  and  a  half 
inches  in  a  wooden  target  twelve  feet  from  the 
muzzle,  and,  as  in  the  previous  instance,  the  gun 
suffered  no  damage. 

At  his  next  experiment  he  fired  a  one-hundred- 
pound  ball  from  a  columbiad  at  the  same  target, 
which  was  quite  knocked  to  pieces,  while  the  gun 
escaped  injury. 

In  1813  he  took  out  a  patent  ''for  several  im- 
provements in  the  art  of  maritime  warfare,  and 
means  of  injuring  and  destroying  ships  and  vessels 
of  war  by  igniting  gunpowder  under  water,  or  by 
igniting  gunpowder  below  a  line  horizontal  to  the 
surface  of  the  water,  or  so  igniting  gunpowder  that 


TORPEDO  WARFARE. 


63 


the  explosion  which  causes  injury  to  the  vessel  at- 
tacked shall  be  under  water."  His  plan  was  to 
place  guns  in  a  ship  below  her  water-line,  with  the 
breech  on  the  inside  of  the  ship  and  the  muzzle 
under  water,  and  he  claimed  there  would  be  no 
more  danger  that  the  guns  would  burst  than  when 
fired  in  the  air.  He  proposed  that  the  muzzle  of 
the  gun  should  recoil  through  a  stuffing-box,  and 
that  a  valve  should  instantly  close  the  orifice  after 
the  discharge,  so  that  water  could  not  be  admitted. 

Fulton's  idea  of  submarine  guns  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  favorably  received  by  the  govern- 
ment, or,  at  any  rate,  it  was  not  adopted.  Within 
the  last  few  years  Mr.  John  Ericsson,  the  celebrated 
inventor,  has  developed  a  plan  for  a  boat  with  sub- 
marine guns.  He  is  confident  that  the  Destroyer," 
as  he  calls  his  craft,  will  create  a  new  era  in  naval 
warfare  as  soon  as  the  principle  is  adopted. 

Before  dismissing  the  machines  which  destroyed 
the  Dorothea  but  failed  to  injure  the  Argus,  a  few 
words  upon  the  progress  of  torpedo  warfare  will 
not  be  without  interest. 

Just  before  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812-15  the 
government  decided  upon  a  general  system  of  de- 
fensive torpedoes  for  the  principal  Atlantic  ports, 
but  the  measure  was  dropped  upon  the  declaration 
of  peace,  as  the  country  could  not  afford  the  needed 
expenditure.  During  the  war  several  private  at- 
tempts were  made  to  inflict  damage  upon  British 


64 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


ships  on  our  coast,  and  though  none  of  the  hostile 
craft  were  seriously  harmed,  the  dread  of  the  ter- 
rible torpedoes  kept  the  enemy  at  a  distance  and 
saved  many  of  our  ports  from  invasion.  Boats  on 
the  Bushnell  system  were  sent  against  the  blockad- 
ing squadron  near  London,  but  they  did  not  suc- 
ceed, and  an  immense  torpedo  sent  against  the 
man-of-war  Plantagenet,  seventy-four  guns,  off 
Cape  Henry,  Virginia,  exploded  a  few  minutes 
too  soon.  It  flooded  the  Plantagenet's  deck  with 
water,  and  nearly  upset  the  vessel,  but  she  righted 
herself  and  escaped  injury. 

From  that  time  until  the  Crimean  war  little  was 
heard  of  torpedoes  ;  attention  was  then  drawn  to 
them  by  their  use  in  the  waters  of  the  Baltic  and 
Black  seas  where  several  explosions  occurred  be- 
neath British  ships  but  without  serious  results.  In 
the  American  civil  war  torpedoes  were  freely 
used  in  defending  the  Southern  ports,  and  several 
ships  (some  fifteen  in  all)  were  destroyed  by  them  ; 
in  a  few  instances,  notably  that  of  the  destruction 
of  the  ram  Albemarle  at  Plymouth,  N.  C,  the  tor- 
pedo performed  effective  offensive  work.  The 
principal  destruction  caused  by  torpedoes  was  in 
the  last  two  years  of  the  war.  In  writing  of  these 
weapons  a  gallant  naval  officer.  Captain  Chandler, 
used  the  following  words  : 

The  torpedo  is  destined  to  be  the  least  expensive  but 
most  terrible  engine  of  defence  yet  invented.     No  vessel 


rOKPEDO  WARFARE. 


65 


can  be  so  constructed  as  to  resist  its  power ;  and  the  un- 
certainty of  its  locality  would  prevent  the  hostile  fleet 
from  approaching  the  supposed  positions.  In  all  collisions 
between  hostile  powers,  whether  army  against  army,  ship 
against  ship,  or  ship  against  fort,  more  or  less  bravery  has 
been  and  is  destined  to  be  displayed  ;  but  the  uncertainty 
of  the  locality  of  the  foe — the  knowledge  that  a  single 
touch  will  lay  our  ship  a  helpless,  sinking  wreck  upon  the 
water,  without  even  the  satisfaction  of  firing  one  shot  in 
return — calls  for  more  courage  than  can  be  expressed,  and 
a  short  cruise  among  torpedoes  will  sober  the  most  in- 
trepid disposition." 

Beginning  about  1830  Colonel  Samuel  Colt,  the 
inventor  of  the  revolving  pistol  which  bears  his 
name,  experimented  with  electricity  in  discharging 
torpedoes.  He  blew  up  several  ships  at  anchor 
during  experiments  covering  nearly  fourteen  years  ; 
on  April  13,  1843,  he  destroyed  a  brig  under  full 
sail  in  the  Potomac  River,  by  means  of  a  torpedo 
fired  from  a  battery  at  Alexandria,  five  miles  away. 
He  devised  a  system  of  torpedoes  which  should  be 
planted  at  different  points  in  a  harbor  and  con- 
nected with  the  shore  by  means  of  insulated  wires. 
Reflectors  would  show  when  a  hostile  ship  was 
above  one  of  these  torpedoes,  and  the  operator  at 
his  station  could  blow  her  into  fragmencs  simply  by 
depressing  a  key.  After  his  death  the  details  of 
this  project  were  found  among  his  papers,  bearing 
the  date  1836.  Captain  Hennebert,  a  French  en- 
gineer officer,  prepared  an  elaborate  system  of  sub- 


66 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


marine  mines  soon  after  Colonel  Colt's  experiments, 
but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  adopted  by  his 
government,  though  it  was  favorably  received  by 
military  men. 

During  the  past  twenty  years  all  the  principal 
nations  have  given  much  attention  to  torpedoes 
both  for  offence  and  defence,  and  large  amounts  of 
money  have  been  expended  on  experiments  and  in 
the  construction  of  torpedo  boats.  Space  will  not 
permit  a  detailed  account  of  the  progress  that  has 
been  made  in  torpedo  warfare  since  the  days  of 
Bushnell  and  Fulton,  but  it  is  proper  to  say  at  the 
outset  that  the  plan  on  which  much  of  their  hope 
was  based,  that  of  submarine  boats  operated  by 
men,  has  been  very  generally  discarded.  Sub- 
marine boats  are  used  under  several  systems,  but 
they  are  propelled  by  electricity,  compressed  air,  or 
some  other  inanimate  power  that  does  not  involve 
risk  to  the  life  of  the  operator.  A  few  submarine 
boats  which  carry  men  in  their  interiors  have  been 
constructed,  but  at  present  none  of  them  have  been 
tried  in  actual  warfare.  Further  reference  to  these 
boats  will  be  made  in  a  later  chapter. 

Offensive  torpedoes  are  of  two  general  kinds — 
those  which  are  carried  upon  spars  by  swiftly-mov- 
ing boats  and  those  which  are  launched  from  boats 
or  from  the  shore  and  move  under  the  water  or  just 
upon  its  surface.  The  first  are  known  as  ''spar" 
and  the  second  as  ''fish"  torpedoes,  and  there  are 


TORPEDO  WARFARE, 


67 


several  varieties  of  each  kind.  With  the  spar  tor- 
pedo the  assailant  must  approach  very  near  the 
ship  he  wishes  to  destroy  and  thus  be  subjected  to 
its  fire.  The  ram  Albemarle  was  destroyed  by  a 
spar  torpedo,  but  the  explosion  came  near  causing 
the  loss  of  the  entire  attacking  party,  consisting  of 
Lieutenant  Gushing  and  thirteen  men.  The  tor- 
pedo boat  was  overturned,  and  only  the  lieutenant 
and  one  man  escaped  death  or  capture.  Torpedo 
boats  of  this  class  were  used  in  the  late  war  be- 
tween Russia  and  Turkey,  and  also  in  the  difficul- 
ties between  France  and  China.  They  were  less 
successful  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter  instance. 

The  fish  torpedo  is  designed  to  go  beneath  the 
surface  of  the  water.  It  consists  of  a  cylindrical 
boat  pointed  at  the  ends,  carrying  a  torpedo  in  its 
bow,  and  having  its  propelling  and  steering  appa- 
ratus at  the  stern.  It  is  started  from  a  ship  or  boat 
or  from  the  shore,  and  is  expected  to  explode  its 
torpedo  when  it  comes  in  contact  with  the  ship 
against  which  it  is  directed.  Those  which  are  pro- 
pelled by  electricity  carry  a  coil  of  insulated  wire, 
which  is  reeled  off  as  the  boat  proceeds.  The  op- 
erator can  send  positive  or  negative  currents  of 
electricity  through  the  wire  at  pleasure,  and  can 
control  the  motion  of  the  boat  by  means  of  these 
currents. 

In  one  variety  of  fish  torpedo  the  boat  is  a  few 
feet  below  the  surface  of  the  water.     Two  guide- 


68 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


rods  extend  above  the  surface  and  enable  the  op- 
erator to  know  the  position  and  direction  of  the 
craft.  He  can  make  it  move  to  the  right  or  left, 
or  can  even  require  it  to  describe  a  circle  and  return 
to  the  starting-point.  Another  fish  torpedo  is  pro- 
pelled by  compressed  air  supplied  through  a  flexi- 
ble tube,  which  is  drawn  after  the  boat  as  it  pro- 
ceeds. In  this  class  of  boat  the  power  remains 
with  the  operator,  and  it  is  claimed  to  be  a  more 
simple  device  than  the  electric  boat. 

The  great  difficulty  in  the  use  of  offensive  tor- 
pedoes arises  from  the  unwillingness  of  naval  com- 
manders to  keep  their  vessels  in  the  positions  de- 
sired by  their  assailants.  In  a  trial  of  a  torpedo  in 
a  peaceful  locality,  a  scow  or  hulk,  anchored  in  a 
tide-way  or  floating  with  a  current,  may  be  blown 
up  with  ease,  as  the  operator  can  calculate  the  force 
and  direction  required  for  reaching  the  object.  But 
in  actual  warfare,  the  captain  of  a  ship  does  not  in 
his  sober  moments  anchor  within  torpedo  range  of 
his  enemy,  or,  if  occasion  requires  him  to  do  so,  he 
surrounds  his  vessel  with  defences  similar  to  those 
which  foiled  Mr.  Fulton  in  his  essay  upon  the  Ar- 
gus. 

Every  maritime  nation  manages  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  assailing  devices  possessed  by  its 
enemy,  and  up  to  the  present  time  no  human  skill 
has  been  able  to  construct  an  offensive  torpedo 
which  could  not  be  successfully  resisted  or  avoided 


TORPEDO  WARFARE. 


69 


by  other  human  skill.  In  the  last  war  between 
Russia  and  Turkey  offensive  torpedoes  were 
largely  used,  but  they  succeeded  in  only  two  in- 
stances, and  both  of  these  were  of  minor  conse- 
quence. Two  Turkish  gunboats  on  the  Danube 
were  blown  up,  but  no  sea-going  vessels  were  de- 
stroyed, though  the  Russians  made  many  attempts 
upon  the  Turkish  fleet. 


British  Iron-clad  Protected  by  Torpedo  Netting. 


But  in  defensive  warfare  the  torpedo  is  playing 
an  important  part,  and  is  destined  to  greater  prom- 
inence as  time  goes  on.  Recent  improvements  in 
naval  architecture  have  led  to  the  construction  of 
ships  capable  of  passing  the  strongest  fortifications 
with  comparatively  little  risk,  and  demonstrated  the 
necessity  of  other  means  of  defence  than  batteries 
of  artillery.  In  all  the  great  nations  a  careful  dis- 
tinction is  made  between  offensive  and  defensive 


70 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


torpedoes.  In  the  United  States  the  naval  school 
for  offensive  torpedoes  is  at  Newport,  Rhode  Isl- 
and, while  the  defensive  torpedo  school  is  at  Wil- 
lett's  Point,  New  York. 

After  the  American  civil  war  the  first  conspicu- 
ous use  of  torpedoes  in  defence  was  in  the  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  war,  when  the  Danes  protected  their 
rivers  and  harbors  with  ingenious  submarine  mines 
which  destroyed  one  of  the  attacking  ship  and  caused 
the  others  to  be  very  wary  in  their  movements.  In 
the  South-American  wars  a  few  years  later  the  riv- 
ers and  harbors  were  protected  by  torpedoes,  and 
the  same  was  the  case  with  the  harbors  of  France 
and  Germany  in  their  war  of  1870-71.  In  fact, 
nearly  every  nation  that  has  had  hostilities  with  an- 
other in  the  past  twenty  years  has  resorted  to  the 
torpedo  as  a  most  important  means  of  defence. 

In  protecting  a  seaport  with  torpedoes  the  mod- 
dern  system  has  rendered  an  attack  by  a  fleet  a 
matter  of  great  risk  to  the  invader.  Mines  may  be 
planted  all  over  a  harbor  and  in  its  channels,  so  that 
a  vessel  cannot  move  in  any  direction  without  pass- 
ing over  some  of  them.  They  can  be  fired  by  elec- 
tricity, either  by  contact  with  a  buoy  or  by  a  current 
sent  from  the  shore,  and  by  means  of  reflectors  and 
cameras  the  position  of  an  enemy's  ship  may  be 
shown  to  the  operator  safely  lodged  in  a  casemate 
of  a  fortress.  He  has  only  to  depress  a  button 
at  the  proper  moment  to  blow  the  ship  into  frag- 


TORPEDO  WARFARE, 


71 


ments.  By  throwing  off  the  electric  current  the 
torpedoes  may  be  rendered  perfectly  harmless  to 
friendly  ships,  while  a  restoration  of  the  current 
instantly  puts  the  mine  again  in  effective  condition. 
Any  attempt  of  an  enemy  to  grapple  the  torpedoes 
and  remove  them  at  night,  will  be  revealed  by  the 
electric  current,  and  it  may  even  be  so  arranged 
that  the  guns  of  a  fort  aimed  at  a  given  torpedo 
will  be  discharged  automatically  by  electricity 
the  moment  the  torpedo  is  disturbed.  Light- 
draft  torpedo  boats  are  an  important  adjunct  to  the 
defence  of  a  harbor,  and  nearly  all  the  leading 
nations  of  the  world  are  provided  with  them. 

But  while  talking  about  torpedoes,  we  have  not 
forgotten  Fulton.  When  he  left  England  in  1806, 
he  had  other  objects  in  view  besides  warfare  by 
means  of  explosives,  as  we  shall  learn  in  the  next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  V. 


Fulton's  experiments  with  steanx  navigation — Correspondence  with  the  Earl 
of  Stanhope — Attempts  of  inventors  previous  to  Fulton's  time — Chan- 
cellor Livingston — Association  of  Livingston  and  Fulton — Experiment 
on  the  Seine  in  1803 — Engine  of  the  Clermont  ordered. 


HE  date  at  which  Fulton's  attention  was  called 


jL  to  the  propulsion  of  boats  by  steam  is  not  ex- 
actly known,  but  his  friends  have  claimed  that  it  was 
as  early  as  i  790.  The  first  record  concerning  it  is  in 
his  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Stanhope,  dated  Septem- 
ber 30,  1793,  which  was  answered  on  the  7th  of  the 
following  month  in  these  words  : 

Sir  :  I  have  received  yours  of  the  30th  of  September, 
in  which  you  propose  to  communicate  to  me  the  principles 
of  an  invention  which  you  say  you  have  discovered,  re- 
specting the  moving  of  ships  by  means  of  steam.  It  is  a 
subject  on  which  I  have  made  important  discoveries.  I 
shall  be  glad  to  receive  the  communication  which  you  in- 
tend, as  I  have  made  the  principles  of  mechanics  my  par- 
ticular study."    ^    "J^-  ^ 

Fulton  never  claimed  to  have  been  the  first  to 
suggest  steam  navigation,  but  simply  to  have  de- 
vised improvements  by  which  it  could  be  success- 
fully accomplished.  All  previous  attempts  had 
failed  to  be  remunerative  to  those  who  made  them, 


ATTEMPTS  OF  OTHER  INVENTORS. 


73 


and  it  is  a  matter  of  history  that  the  first  success- 
ful steamboat  was  the  one  built  by  the  man  whose 
biography  is  here  written. 

A  summary  of  these  attempts  will  be  interesting 
at  this  point. 

Spanish  writers  believe  that  one  of  their  country- 
men, Blasco  de  Gary,  propelled  a  vessel  by  steam 
in  the  harbor  of  Barcelona  in  1543,  and  they  assert 
that  the  ship  was  moved  at  the  rate  of  one  league 
per  hour.  No  details  of  the  experiment  are  given, 
except  that  it  was  made  at  the  order  of  the  king, 
and  the  apparatus  was  applied  to  the  Trinity,"  a 
vessel  of  two  hundred  tons  burthen. 

Nearly  all  writers  upon  steam  navigation  dis- 
credit the  story  concerning  Blasco  de  Gary,  and 
say  the  first  authentic  steamboat  was  that  of  Papin, 
who  published  a  work  in  1690,  in  which  he  proposed 
steam  as  a  universal  motive  power,  and  gave  a  rude 
plan  of  a  paddle  steamer.  In  1707  he  made  a 
model  steamboat,  and  tried  it  upon  the  river  Fulda 
near  Cassel.  Evidently  it  was  not  successful,  as  it 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  heard  of  afterwards. 
In  1736,  Jonathan  Hulls  took  out  a  patent  for  a 
marine  engine,  which  he  proposed  to  place  in  a 
boat  which  was  to  be  used  for  towing  ships  very 
much  as  the  modern  tow-boat  is  employed.  His 
boat  was  equipped  with  a  single  wheel  at  the  stern, 
and  the  power  was  carried  to  it  by  bands  passing 
over  wheels. 


74 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


\\{i]liam  Henry,  of  Chester  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, tried  a  model  steamboat  on  the  Conestoga 
in  1763,  and  it  has  been  surmised  that  Fulton  was 
familiar  with  this  experiment.  The  Count  d'Auxi- 
ron,  M.  Perier,  and  the  Marquis  de  Jouffroy,  made 
similar  trials  between  the  years  1774  and  1783. 

The  boat  of  the  Marquis  de  Jouffroy  was  about 
forty  feet  long,  and  was  propelled  by  paddles 
which  were  made  to  dip  in  the  water  while  advan- 
cing through  it,  their  return  motion  being  performed 
in  the  air.  The  trial  was  made  at  Lyons  in  the 
presence  of  the  entire  population  of  the  city  and 
several  officials  of  the  government.  The  boat  as- 
cended the  swift  current  of  the  river,  and  though 
the  experiment  was  considered  successful,  the  gov- 
ernment refused  to  grant  a  patent  to  the  inventor. 
French  writers  generally  claim  for  the  marquis  the 
honor  of  having  invented  the  steamboat,  and  this 
claim  was  supported  by  M.  Arago  and  the  French 
Academy  long  after  the  death  of  the  individual 
most  interested  in  the  matter.  It  it  also  claimed 
that  Fulton  became  acquainted  with  the  marquis 
during  his  sojourn  in  France  and  obtained  from 
him  the  ideas  which  he  afterwards  put  in  practice 
in  America. 

In  connection  with  the  French  claim  the  following 
letter  from  Joel  Barlow  to  Mr.  Fulton  is  interesting  : 

To-day  I  went  to  the  National  Depot  of  Machines 
with  Parker  to  show  it  him,  and  there  I  met  Montgolfier, 


76 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


and  there  I  saw  a  strange  thing ;  it  was  no  less  than  your 
very  steamboat,  in  all  its  parts  and  principles,  in  a  very 
elegant  model.  It  contains  your  wheel-oars  precisely  as 
you  have  placed  them,  except  that  it  has  four  wheels  on 
each  side  to  guide  round  the  endless  chain  instead  of  two. 

''  The  two  upper  wheels  seem  to  be  only  to  support  the 
chain  ;  perhaps  it  is  an  improvement.  The  model  of  the 
steam-engine  is  in  its  place,  with  a  wooden  boiler,  cylin- 
der placed  horizontal,  every  thing  complete.  I  never  saw 
a  neater  model.  It  belongs  to  a  company  at  Lyons,  who 
got  out  a  patent  about  three  months  ago.  Montgolfier 
says  they  have  made  their  funds  to  the  amount  of  two 
millions  for  building  boats  and  navigating  the  Rhone. 
They  have  already  spent  si?<:  hundred  thousand  francs  in 
establishing  their  atelier  at  Lyons.  They  have  not  yet 
tried  the  experiment  en  grand,  I  talked  with  M.  a  great 
deal  about  it,  and  told  him  it  was  Fulton's  idea  in  every 
part  except  the  cylinder  being  horizontal,  which  I  be- 
lieved would  not  do.  He  says  none  of  it  will  do,  and  '  if 
M.  Fulton  had  spoken  to  me  of  that,  I  would  have  com- 
plained to  him  of  that  defect ;  and  if  I  had  30,006  francs 
in  that  enterprise  at  Lyons,  I  would  have  sold  them  for  a 
thousand  ecus.' 

''  I  found,  however,  after  a  long  discussion,  that  his 
objections  arose  entirely  from  what  you  are  well  aware 
of,  and  have  calculated  exactly,  using  water  instead  of 
land  for  the  point  d'appnye.  He  said  nothing  that  would 
be  new  to  you.  He  says  that  common  oars  and  all  modes 
of  moving  a  thing  in  water  by  pushing  against  water  lose 
ninety-nine  hundredths  of  your  power.  You  see  he  is  not 
aware  that  it  is  a  subject  of  accurate  calculation,  and  that 
you  may  know  exactly  the  difference  between  pushing 
against  water  and  against  solid  bodies,  I  shall  say  noth- 
ing to  Livingston  of  this  model." 


ATTEMPTS  OF  OTHER  INVENTORS. 


77 


The  next  experiment  was  made  in  i  784  by  James 
Rumsey,  an  American  inventor,  who  built  a  boat 
which  was  propelled  by  a  jet  of  water  forced  out  at 
the  stern  by  means  of  pumps  worked  by  steam 
power.  Rumsey  made  a  trial  of  his  boat  on  the 
Potomac  River  in  September  of  that  year  in  the 
presence  of  General  Washington  and  other  officers 
of  the  army.  In  1786  and  again  in  1787  he  re- 
peated the  experiments  in  larger  boats  than  the 
first,  and  his  invention  was  considered  sufficiently 
practicable  to  recommend  it  to  capitalists. 

The  Rumsey  Society"  was  formed  in  Philadel- 
phia in  1788,  and  the  inventor  went  to  England 
where  another  boat  was  constructed  ;  patents  were 
obtained  in  England,  France,  and  Holland,  and  a 
successful  trip  was  made  on  the  Thames  in  1792. 
While  making  preparations  for  another  trial  Rum- 
sey died  suddenly  and  the  company  seems  to  have 
dissolved. 

Previous  to  his  departure  from  America  Rumsey 
was  in  a  bitter  controversy  with  John  Fitch  of  Phila- 
delphia, in  which  a  great  many  sharp  things 
were  said  on  both  sides.  Fitch  had  designed  a 
steamboat  about  the  beginning  of  1785,  and  in  the 
following  year  he  exhibited  the  working  model  of  a 
boat  with  a  cylinder  one  inch  in  diameter.  Exclu- 
sive privileges  for  steam  navigation  were  granted 
him  by  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  and  after- 
wards of  New  York  and  Delaware  in  March  1787  ; 


78 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


in  August  of  the  same  year  he  completed  and  tried  a 
boat  with  a  twelve-inch  cylinder,  but  she  proved  de- 
ficient in  speed.  In  1788  a  new  boat  was  built  for 
the  same  machinery,  and  it  made  several  passages 
between  Philadelphia  and  Burlington  with  a  speed 
of  about  four  miles  an  hour. 

The  last  and  largest  boat  upon  Fitch's  plan  was 
built  in  1789  and  tried  in  1790;  it  had  a  cylinder 
eighteen  inches  in  diameter  and  was  run  as  a 
passenger  boat  on  the  Delaware  for  the  entire  sum- 
mer of  that  year.     It  made  about  seven  and  a  half 

miles  an  hour  and  altoo^ether  is  said  to  have  run 

<_> 

more  than  two  thousand  miles  before  it  was  finally 
laid  up.  As  a  speculation  it  was  a  failure  and  the 
stockholders  refused  to  advance  more  money  for 
the  enterprise  ;  Fitch  was  reduced  to  poverty  and 
for  some  time  wandered  through  the  streets  of 
Philadelphia  hardly  knowing  where  his  next  meal 
would  be  obtained.  Through  the  aid  of  friends  he 
was  able  to  go  to  France  in  the  hope  of  introducing 
his  invention  there,  but  the  hope  was  blasted  and 
he  returned  from  Europe  as  a  sailor  before  the 
mast. 

Fitch  constantly  asserted  that  steamships  would 
one  day  navigate  the  ocean  and  that  the  traffic  on 
great  rivers  would  be  conducted  exclusively  on 
boats  propelled  by  steam.  He  predicted  that  some 
one  who  came  after  him  would  obtain  honor  and 
fortune  by    establishing  steam   navigation  on  a 


So 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


sound  basis,  and  he  was  very  bitter  towards  those 
who  did  not  beheve  in  his  projects.  He  died  sud- 
denly in  I  798  in  the  midst  of  discouragements,  the 
last  one  being  his  inability  to  induce  capitalists  to 
undertake  the  formation  of  companies  for  the  navi- 
gation of  our  western  rivers  by  steamboats. 

Fitch's  boat  was  propelled  by  oars  or  paddles 
working  at  the  sides  of  the  craft  in  much  the  same 


John  Fitch,  1796.    Collect  Pond,  New  York. 

way  as  the  boat  of  the  Marquis  de  Jouffroy.  In 
1796  he  tried  a  small  boat  on  the  Collect  Pond, 
New  York,  which  has  been  described  as  a  screw 
propeller,  as  it  was  driven  by  a  submerged  wheel. 
According  to  the  description  made  at  the 
trial,  it  was  a  ship's  yawl  fitted  with  a  screw 
greatly  resembling  the  one  afterwards  brought  for- 
ward by  Woodcraft. 

Fitch  seems  to  have  fallen  just  short  of  success 


ATTEMPTS  OF  OTHER  INVENTORS. 


8l 


and  it  is  probable  that  the  science  of  steam  naviga- 
tion owes  more  to  him  than  to  any  other  of  Fulton's 
predecessors.  If  the  boat  of  i  790  had  been  com- 
mercially remunerative  it  would  have  led  to  the 
construction  of  other  boats  for  the  navigation  of 
the  Delaware  ;  from  Philadelphia  the  knowledge 
and  application  of  Fitch's  invention  would  have 
spread  through  the  country,  and  from  America  to 
the  rest  of  the  world.  But  failure  caused  the  total 
abandonment  of  the  enterprise  and  we  hear  no 
more  of  steam  navigation  in  America  until  near  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

A  model  steamboat  was  constructed  in  i  789  by 
Nathan  Read,  who  had  previously  experimented 
with  a  boat  propelled  by  paddles  attached  to  a 
crank  worked  by  hand.  With  this  boat  he  crossed 
with  great  ease  an  arm  of  the  sea  in  Danvers, 
Massachusetts,  and  his  success  convinced  him  that 
the  paddle-wheel  was  an  effective  mode  of  propul- 
sion. He  applied  for  a  patent  upon  his  system, 
but  before  his  papers  were  considered  he  learned  that 
the  paddle-wheel  had  been  rejected  in  France  as 
impracticable.  Supposing  this  previous  experiment 
would  invalidate  his  claim,  he  withdrew  the  part  of 
his  application  referring  to  the  wheels,  and  retained 
only  the  claim  for  a  portable  furnace  and  tubular 
boiler.  He  afterwards  applied  for  a  mode  of  pro- 
pulsion by  means  of  an  endless  chain  with  buckets  or 
paddles  attached,  though  he  still  preferred  the  wheel. 


82 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


William  Longstreet,  a  native  of  New  Jersey,  and 
in  I  790  a  resident  of  Georgia,  wrote  in  that  year  a 
letter  to  Thomas  Tolfairs,  of  Savannah,  asking 
assistance  in  the  construction  of  a  boat  to  be  pro- 
pelled by  steam.  The  letter  was  published  in  the 
Savannah  papers,  but  did  not  bring  the  needed 
funds.  Subsequently  he  obtained  sufficient  money 
to  build  a  boat  which  was  propelled  on  the  Savan- 
nah River,  against  the  tide,  five  miles  an  hour. 
The  plan  of  propulsion  is  not  known.  The  enter- 
prise was  unsuccessful,  and  Longstreet  turned  his 
attention  to  the  construction  of  cotton-gins  and 
other  m.achinery,  until  his  death,  in  18 14. 

Elijah  Ormsbee,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  lived, 
in  1792,  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  He  was 
a  carpenter  by  trade,  and  had  the  ingenuity  for 
which  the  Yankee  is  proverbial.  He  proposed  to 
David  Wilkinson,  of  Pawtucket,  that  the  latter 
should  make  certain  castings  for  a  steam-engine, 
while  he  (Ormsbee)  would  make  the  wood-work 
for  an  engine  for  propelling  a  boat.  Wilkinson 
agreed  to  the  proposal  and  made  the  castings  and 
wrought-iron  work  suggested  by  Ormsbee.  The 
latter  borrowed  a  long-boat  belonging  to  the  ship 
Abigail,  from  her  owners,  Clark  and  Nightengale, 
and  also  borrowed  a  copper  still  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  gallons'  capacity  from  Captain  Ephraim 
Bowen. 

With  the  boat  and  materials   he   retired   to  a 


ATTEMPTS  OF  OTHER  INVENTORS. 


83 


place  called  Windsor  Cave,  where  he  worked  dili- 
gently to  carry  out  his  idea.  He  had  discussed 
with  Wilkinson  the  mode  of  propulsion.  After 
much  deliberation  they  decided  that  paddle-wheels 
would  not  answer,  and  gave  their  preference  for  a 
.''goose-foot."  This  was  a  sort  of  paddle  which  was 
moved  forward  and  aft  by  the  engine  ;  as  it  went 
forward  it  closed,  but  immediately  opened  on  being 
pressed  against  the  water.  The  action  of  the  foot 
of  the  goose,  or  other  aquatic  bird,  had  given  the 
idea  of  this  mode  of  propulsion. 

One  afternoon  in  the  autumn  of  1792,  Ormsbee 
was  ready,  and  made  an  experimental  trip  from 
Windsor  Cave  to  Long  Wharf,  Providence.  The 
next  day  he  went  to  Pawtucket  to  show  Wilkinson 
the  success  of  the  scheme,  and  for  several  weeks 
the  boat  went  up  and  down  the  river  frequently,  at 
the  rate  of  between  three  and  four  miles  an  hour. 
But  nobody  would  advance  the  necessary  capital 
for  the  construction  of  a  larger  steamer,  and,  after 
several  vain  attempts  to  obtain  it,  Ormsbee  returned 
the  long-boat  and  copper  still  to  their  owners  and 
went  to  work  again  at  his  bench. 

Samuel  Morey,  of  Connecticut,  made  experi- 
ments on  the  Connecticut  River  between  1790  and 
1794,  at  propelling  boats  by  steam.  In  the  first 
named  year  he  constructed  a  model  steamboat,  and 
in  1793  he  built  a  boat  with'  a  wheel  at  the  stern, 
which  is  said  to  have  ascended  the  Connecticut 


84 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


River  between  Oxford  and  Fairlee  at  the  rate  of 
five  miles  an  hour.  The  boat  was  just  large  enough 
to  contain  himself  and  his  machinery.  In  1794 
he  is  said  to  have  built  a  larger  boat,  with  which 
he  went  from  Hartford  to  New  York,  where  the 
craft  was  seen  by  Chancellor  Livingston,  Judge  Liv- 
ingston, Edward  Livingston,  John  Stevens,  and 
others. 

Morey  took  out  patents  for  the  application  of 
steam  to  the  propulsion  of  boats  previous  to  the 
patents  of  Fulton.  His  biographer.  Rev.  Cyrus 
Mann,  of  Oxford,  New  Hampshire,  says  Morey 
corresponded  with  Fulton,  and  showed  him  the 
model  of  his  boat  before  the  Clermont  was  begun. 
In  1797  Morey  built  a  steamboat  at  Bordentown, 
New  Jersey,  and  ran  it  to  Philadelphia.  It  was 
propelled  by  wheels,  one  on  each  side,  with  a  shaft 
running  across  the  boat,  and  having  a  crank  in  the 
centre.  Down  to  his  death,  in  1843,  Morey 
claimed  that  Fulton  stole  the  idea  of  the  steamboat 
from  him.  This  claim  is  weakened  by  the  fact  that 
Fulton  was  not  in  America  at  the  time  of  Morey's 
experiments,  and  his  plans  for  building  the  Cler- 
mont were  made  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic 
after  his  experiments  with  Livingston  in  France. 

The  Maryland  Historical  Society  published  in 
1871  ''A  Lost  Chapter  in  the  History  of  the 
Steamboat,"  by  J.  H.  B.  Latrobe.  In  this  pamph- 
let   the   claims  of   Nicholas  J.  Roosevelt  as  the 


ATTEMPTS  OF  OTHER  INVENTORS. 


85 


inventor  of  the  steamboat  are  set  forth.  Roose- 
velt in  1815  sent  a  petition  to  the  Legislature  of 
New  Jersey,  in  which  he  claimed,  to  be  ''the  true 
and  original  inventor  and  discoverer  of  steamboats 
with  vertical  wheels."  In  an  affidavit  attached 
to  his  petition  he  says  that  in  or  about  1781 
or  1782  he  made  a  wooden  model  of  a  boat  with 
vertical  wheels  which  were  propelled  by  springs  of 
hickory  or  whalebone  attached  to  a  cord  passing 


Miller,  Taylor,  and  Symington,  1788. 

between  the  wheels.  In  1798  he  agreed  with  Chan- 
cellor Livingston  and  John  Stevens  to  build  a  boat 
on  joint  account.  The  engines  were  to  be  con- 
structed at  Second  River  by  Roosevelt,  while  the 
propelling  power  was  to  be  on  the  plan  of  the 
Chancellor. 

The  propelling  power  was  an  endless  chain  with 
floats  or  paddles,  and  the  boat  was  tried  in  the  lat- 


86 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


ter  part  of  1798.  It  attained  a  speed  of  three  miles 
an  hour  with  the  wind  and  tide  in  its  favor. 
Roosevelt  proposed  to  the  Chancellor  to  have 
vertical  wheels  over  the  sides  of  the  boat,  but  the 
latter  replied  October  28,  1798  :  ''As  for  the  verti- 
cal wheels,  they  are  out  of  the  question."  The  ex- 
periments were  continued  through  1799  and  1800, 
but  were  brought  to  an  end  near  the  close  of  the 
latter  year  by  the  appointment  of  Chancellor  Liv- 
ingston as  Minister  to  France. 

While  Fitch  and  Rumsey  were  making  their  ex- 
periments on  the  Potomac  and  Delaware,  and  in- 
dulging in  that  war  of  pamphlets  which  was  injuri- 
ous to  the  honor  and  fortunes  of  both,  experiments 
were  making  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  In 
1788  three  Scotchmen — Miller,  Taylor,  and  Sy- 
mington— tried  a  boat  on  the  Dalswinton  River 
and  obtained  a  speed  of  five  miles  an  hour.  Their 
boat  consisted  of  two  hulls  with  a  wheel  between 
them  propelled  by  an  engine  in  one  of  the  hulls. 
Craft  of  similar  construction  may  be  seen  to-day  at 
St.  Louis,  where  they  are  used  as  ferries.  Another 
and  larger  boat  was  built  by  the  same  gentlemen  in 
I  789  and  attained  a  speed  of  seven  miles  an  hour. 
In  1 801  Lord  Dundas  engaged  Symington  to  con- 
struct a  boat  for  towing  on  the  Caledonian 
Canal.  It  was  completed  and  put  in  operation  in 
1802  under  the  name  of  the  ''Charlotte  Dundas," 
and  was  capable  of  drawing  a  vessel  of  140  tons 


ATTEMPTS  OF  OTHER  INVENTORS, 


87 


nearly  four  miles  an  hour.  It  was  found,  however, 
that  the  ''wash"  caused  by  the  wheels  was  very 
detrimental  to  the  banks  of  the  canal.  The  boat 
was  laid  up  after  a  few  years,  and  finally  rotted  to 


The  "Charloiie  Dundas,"i8oi . 


pieces  where  she  lay.  English  writers  have  claimed 
that  Fulton  obtained  his  ideas  of  a  steamboat  from 
the  Charlotte  Dundas,  but  it  is  pretty  certain  he 
never  saw  that  vessel,  and  there  is  no  proof  that  he 
ever  heard  of  her. 


Stevens'  Sectional  Boiler,  1804. 


One  more  experimenter  precedes  Fulton — it  is 
Colonel  John  Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  who  obtained 
a  patent  in  1804  fc>r  a  sectional  boiler,  and  built  a 


88 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Steamboat  with  twin  screws  driven  by  a  high-pres- 
sure engine  attached  to  a  boiler  of  the  new  design. 
His  boat  was  sixty-eight  feet  long  and  fourteen  feet 
broad,  and  the  machinery  is  preserved  in  the  Ste- 
vens Institute  at  Hoboken.  It  was  placed  in  a  new 
hull  in  1844  3.nd  tried  on  the  Hudson,  where  it  at- 
tained a  speed  of  eight  miles  an  hour.  It  is  a  curi- 
ous circumstance  that  the  screw  principle  was  ap- 
plied to  the  propulsion  of  vessels  before  the  paddle 


Stevens'  Screw  Steamer,  1804. 


steamer  became  successful  ;  that  it  was  neglected 
for  about  forty  years  and  again  assumed  promi- 
nence. At  present  the  paddle-wheel  is  almost 
wholly  abandoned  for  the  screw  in  ocean  naviga- 
tion, and  is  taking  its  place  in  many  inland  waters, 
where  sufihcient  depth  for  the  proper  working  of  the 
screw  can  be  obtained. 

The  celebrated  Dr.  Franklin  proposed  a  steam- 
boat which  was  to  be  moved  by  a  column  of  water 


ATTEMPTS  OF  OTHER  INVENTORS. 


89 


flowing  out  at  the  stern  ;  his  plan  was  never  tried  by 
himself  but  the  same  idea  had  occurred  to  Rumsey, 
whose  experiment  failed  as  already  mentioned. 
Dr.  Franklin  became  convinced  that  it  was  not 
practicable  and  economical  to  move  boats  by  steam 
owing  to  the  great  cost  of  running  the  engines  and 
the  large  space  they  would  occupy.  The  same 
belief  was  expressed  by  Benjamin  H.  Latrobe,  an 
eminent  engineer,  in  a  paper  read  before  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  of  Philadelphia,  on 
the  20th  of  May  1803.  ^^e  conclusion  of  his 

paper  Mr.  Latrobe  said  : 

There  are,  indeed,  general  objections  to  the  use  of  the 
steam-engine  for  impelling  boats,  from  which  no  particular 
mode  of  application  can  be  free.    These  are : 

First.  The  weight  of  the  engine  and  of  the  fuel. 

Second.  The  large  space  it  occupies. 

Third.  The  tendency  of  its  action  to  rack  the  vessel 
and  render  it  leaky. 

Fourth.  The  expense  of  maintenance. 

Fifth.  The  irregularity  of  its  motion,  and  the  motion 
of  the  water  in  the  boiler  and  cistern,  and  of  the  fuel- 
vessel  in  rough  water. 

Sixth.  The  difficulty  arising  from  the  liability  of  the 
paddles  or  oars  to  break,  if  light,  and  from  the  weight  if 
made  strong. 

Nor  have  I  ever  heard  of  an  instance,  verified  by 
other  testimony  than'  that  of  the  inventor,  of  a  speedy 
and  agreeable  voyage  having  been  performed  in  a  steam- 
V  >at  of  any  construction. 

I  am  well  aware  that  there  are  still  many  very  respec- 


go 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


table  and  ingenious  men,  who  consider  the  application  of 
the  steam-engine  to  the  purpose  of  navigation,  as  highly 
important  and  very  practicable,  especially  on  the  rapid 
waters  of  the  Mississippi ;  and  who  would  feel  themselves 
almost  offended  at  the  expression  of  an  opposite  opinion. 
And  perhaps  some  of  the  objections  against  it  may  be 
avoided.  That  foanded  on  the  expense  and  weight  of 
the  fuel,  may  not  for  some  years,  exist  on  the  Mississippi, 
where  there  is  a  redundance  of  wood  on  the  banks  ;  but 
the  cutting  and  loading  will  be  ahnost  as  great  an  evil." 

In  the  light  of  the  progress  that  has  been  made 
in  steam  navigation  we  may  be  inclined  to  smile  at 
this  gentleman's  suggestions,  but  he  echoed  the 
general  belief  of  the  scientific  men  of  the  day,  and 
his  paper  was  published  in  the  transactions  of  the 
society  for  the  year  named. 

Among  the  ''very  respectable  and  ingenious 
men"  to  whom  Mr.  Latrobe  makes  reference  he 
undoubtedly  included  Hon.  Robert  R.  Livingston, 
though  he  does  not  give  his  name.  Mr.  Living- 
ston was  a  statesman  and  jurist  of  renown  in  his 
time,  and  a  member  of  a  family  distinguished 
through  several  generations  for  its  ability  and  its 
prominence  in  public  affairs.  He  was  born  in  New 
York  City  in  1746  and  died  in  18 13,  was  a  member 
of  the  second  Continental  Congress  and  one  of  the 
committee  of  five  to  draft  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. He  w^as  absent  from  Philadelphia  on 
the  memorable  Fourth  of  July,  1776,  and  conse- 
quently  his  name  does  not  appear  among  the  sign- 


CHANCELLOR  LIVINGSTON. 


91 


ers  of  the  celebrated  document,  but  he  took  an 
active  part  in  the  revolutionary  measures,  was  again 
a  member  of  Congress  in  1 780,  and  Secretary  of 
Foreign  Affairs  from  1781  to  1783. 

Livingston  was  a  member  of  the  convention  that 
framed  the  first  constitution  of  the  State  of  New- 
York,  which  was  adopted  in  1777,  and  was  the  first 
chancellor  of  the  State,  holding  the  office  till  1801. 
For  this  reason  he  is  generally  known  as  Chancel- 
lor Livingston  ;  in  this  capacity  he  administered 
the  oath  of  office  to  Washington  on  his  first 
assumption  of  the  duties  of  President  in  1879. 
1 801  he  was  appointed  Minister  of  the  United 
States  to  France,  and  two  years  later  he  negotiated 
the  purchase  of  the  territory  of  Louisiana  from  the 
French  Government.  He  resigned  his  official  posi- 
tion in  1804  and  returned  to  America  in  1805. 

In  addition  to  public  affairs  Chancellor  Livings- 
ton took  great  interest  in  mechanical,  industrial, 
scientific,  and  artistic  matters,  and  was  constantly 
alive  to  measures  that  would  increase  the  prosperity 
of  his  country  and  the  intelligence  of  its  citizens, 
l^he  experiments  of  Fitch  and  Rumsey  drew  his  at- 
tention to  the  problem  of  moving  boats  by  steam, 
and  he  realized  the  great  benefits  that  would  come 
from  the  successful  adoption  of  steamboats  in  the 
navigation  of  the  rivers  and  lakes  of  the  United 
States.  According  to  Mr.  Colden  he  applied 
himself  with  uncommon  energy  and  perseverance 


92 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


and  at  great  expense  to  constructing  vessels  and 
machinery  for  that  kind  of  navigation.  As  early 
as  I  798  he  believed  that  he  had  accomplished  his 
object  and  represented  to  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  of  New  York  that  he  was  possessed  of  a 
mode  of  applying  the  steam-engine  to  propel  a 
boat  on  new  and  advantageous  principles  ;  but 
that  he  was  deterred  from  carrying  it  into  effect  by 
the  uncertainty  and  hazard  of  a  very  expensive  ex- 
periment, unless  he  could  be  assured  of  an  exclusive 
advantage  from  it  should  it  be  found  successful 

''The  Legislature,  in  March,  1798,  passed  an 
act  vesting  Mr.  Livingston  with  the  exclusive 
right  and  privilege  of  navigating  all  kinds  of  boats, 
which  might  be  propelled  by  the  force  of  fire  or 
steam,  on  all  the  waters  within  the  territory  or 
jurisdiction  of  the  State  of  New  York,  for  the 
term  of  twenty  years  from  the  passing  of  the  act  ; 
upon  condition  that  he  should  within  a  twelvemonth 
build  such  a  boat,  the  mean  of  whose  progress 
should  not  be  less  than  four  miles  an  hour." 

Dr.  Mitchell  of  New  York  introduced  the  bill, 
and  it  was  received  with  much  opposition,  princi- 
pally by  the  lawyers  and  wags  in  the  house.  The 
project  was  deemed  idle  and  whimsical  and 
quite  unworthy  the  attention  of  the  Legislature, 
and  the  introducer  of  the  bill  had  his  temper 
sorely  tried  by  the  number  and  character  of  the 
jokes  that  were  made  concerning  it.     In  the  State 


ASSOCIATION  0/^  LIVINGSTON  AND  FULTON,  93 


Senate  it  was  regarc'.ed  in  the  same  way,  and  one 
Senator  said  that  whenever  the  younger  members 
desired  a  Httle  fun  they  would  call  up  the  steam- 
boat bill  and  indulge  in  ridicule  of  the  project  and 
its  advocates.  When  the  bill  was  passed  it  was 
looked  upon  more  as  a  joke  than  any  thing  else  by 
the  majority  of  the  members,  and  some  of  them 
were  quite  willing  to  give  Mr.  Livingston  a  monop- 
oly for  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  years,  as  they  did 
not  believe  the  scheme  would  ever  amount  to  any 
thing. 

As  soon  as  the  act  was  passed  Mr.  Livingston 
built  a  boat  of  about  thirty  tons'  burthen  to  be 
propelled  by  steam,  but  she  was  deficient  in  speed 
and  did  not  meet  the  requirements  of  the  law.  The 
year  allowed  for  the  preliminary  trial  elapsed  and 
the  project  was  abandoned  for  a  time,  though  the 
Chancellor  does  not  seem  to  have  been  discour- 
aged. His  departure  for  France  occurred  soon 
after  the  discontinuance  of  the  enterprise,  and  little 
was  said  about  steamboats  in  the  United  States 
until  a  few  years  afterwards. 

Livingston  and  Fulton  became  acquainted  in 
Paris  and  it  was  quite  natural  that  they  should  be 
drawn  closely  together  from  their  interest  in  the 
great  problem  which  occupied  both  their  minds. 
They  had  many  consultations  and  conferences 
which  resulted  in  a  determination  to  build  an  ex- 
perimental boat  at  their  joint  expense.    In  1802 


94 


ROBERT  FULTOV. 


Mr.  Fulton  went  to  Plombieres,  France,  to  accom- 
pany Mrs.  Barlow,  who  had  been  sent  there  by  her 
physician,  and  while  at  Plombferes  he  tried  some 
models  of  boats  which  he  constructed  with  his  own 
hands.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  same  year  the  con- 
struction of  the  steamboat  was  beg-un  at  Paris  and 
it  was  completed  early  in  the  spring  of  1803. 

It  was  placed  in  the  Seine,  and  Mr.  Fulton  and 
Mr.  Livingston  were  preparing  to  invite  their  friends 
and  others  to  witness  the  experiment  when,  early 
one  morning,  the  former  gentleman  was  roused  by  a 
messenger  who  came  to  tell  him  that  the  boat  had 
broken  in  pieces  and  gone  to  the  bottom  of  the 
river.  In  narrating  the  incident  afterwards  the 
inventor  said  the  news  created  a  despondency  he 
had  never  felt  before,  but  the  sensation  was  only 
momentary.  Without  waiting  for  his  breakfast  he 
hurried  to  the  spot  where  the  boat  had  been  moored 
to  the  bank,  and  unhappily  found  that  the  mes- 
sengers story  was  correct.  The  frame  of  the  boat 
was  too  weak  to  support  the  weight  of  the  machin- 
ery ;  a  gale  had  been  blowing  during  the  night,  and 
the  agitation  of  the  water  had  caused  the  craft  to 
break  in  two.  She  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  river 
and  not  a  vestige  of  her  was  visible  above  the 
surface  of  the  water. 

Without  returning  to  his  lodgings,  Fulton  went 
to  work  to  raise  what  was  left  of  his  boat,  and 
within  twenty-four  hours  he  had  the  machinery  and 


96 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


the  fragments  of  the  hull  safe  on  land,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  unimportant  pieces.  But  the  destruc- 
tion was  so  complete  that  it  was  necessary  to  rebuild 
the  boat  entirely,  and  the  work  was  not  accom- 
plished until  the  following  July.  During  the  work 
of  raising  the  boat  Mr.  Fulton  was  much  of  the 
time  in  the  river  up  to  his  waist,  and  he  took  no 
rest  or  refreshment  for  the  whole  twenty-four  hours. 
At  that  time  of  the  year  the  water  of  the  Seine  is 
very  cold,  and  the  exposure  and  excitement  brought 
on  a  pulmonary  trouble  which  remained  with  him 
for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Much  of  his  subsequent 
ill-health  was  attributed  to  this  incident. 

Though  the  boat  was  destroyed,  the  machinery 
was  very  little  injured,  and  consequently  the  pecu- 
niary damage  was  less  than  had  first  been  supposed. 
Early  in  August  Mr.  Fulton  wrote  to  the  officers 
of  the  French  National  Institute,  inviting  them  to 
witness  the  trial  of  the  boat ;  they  accepted  the  in- 
vitation, and  the  experiment  took  place  in  their 
presence,  together  with  that  of  other  distinguished 
citizens  of  Paris,  and  a  considerable  multitude  at- 
tracted by  idle  curiosity.  The  boat  was  sixty-six 
feet  long  and  eight  feet  wide,  and  was  moved  by 
wheels  on  the  sides.  The  experiment  was  satisfac- 
tory, though  the  boat  did  not  equal  the  expectations 
of  her  builders  in  point  of  speed.  Mr.  Fulton  at 
once  declared  that  the  engines  were  not  sufficiently 
powerful,  and  besides,  there  were  many  defects  in 


ENGINE  OF  THE  CLERMONT  ORDERED.  97 


their  construction  which  could  be  remedied.  Both 
Fulton  and  Livingston  were  satisfied  with  the 
result,  and  determined  to  build  a  larger  and  more 
powerful  boat  for  the  navigation  of  the  Hudson 
River. 

Mr.  Livingston  supplied  the  necessary  funds, 
and  Fulton  at  once  ordered  an  engine  from  Messrs. 
Boulton  &  Watt,  of  Birmingham,  which  was  to  be 
built  upon  certain  specifications  which  he  furnished. 
He  did  not  tell  them  the  purposes  for  which  it  was 
intended,  and  consequently  there  was  a  correspon- 
dence concerning  the  engine,  which  caused  consid- 
erable delay  in  the  work.  On  his  arrival  in  Eng- 
land, Fulton  went  to  Birmingham  and  made  some 
new  specifications  for  the  work,  which  was  not 
pushed  with  any  rapidity.  By  the  terms  of  the 
contract  the  engine  should  have  been  in  America 
in  1805,  but  it  did  not  arrive  until  after  Fulton's 
return  in  1806. 

At  the  same  time  Livingston  wrote  to  his  friends 
at  home,  and  through  their  influence  and  action  the 
Leg,  ji^^ture  of  the  State  of  New  York  passed  a  law 
rene  ing  the  exclusive  privilege  of  navigating  the 
wate's  of  the  State  by  steam,  which  had  been  pre- 
viously granted  to  Mr.  Livingston,  but  had  lapsed 
in  consequence  of  the  failure  of  the  experimental 
beat  of  1798.  In  the  new  act  Fulton's  name  was 
united  with  that  of  Livingston,  the  two  being 
made  joint  grantees,  and  they  were  allowed  two 


98 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


years  in  which  to  produce  a  steamboat  of  not  less 
than  twenty  tons  burthen,  which  should  move  with 
and  against  the  current  of  the  Hudson  River  at 
the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.  A  later  law  ex- 
tended the  limit  of  time  for  the  trial  to  April,  1807. 

While  Fulton  was  at  Plombieres,  Mr.  Barlow 
wrote  him  as  follows  : 

•5f  -K-  'k  u  J  j^^j  ^  great  talk  with  Livingston.  He 
says  he  is  perfectly  satisfied  with  your  experiments  and 
calculations,  but  is  always  suspicious  that  the  engine 
beating  up  and  down  will  break  the  boat  to  pieces.  He 
seems  to  be  for  trying  the  horizontal  cylinder,  or  for  return- 
ing to  his  mercurial  engine.  I  see  his  mind  is  not  settled, 
and  he  promises  now  to  write  you,  which  he  says  he 
should  have  done  long  ago,  but  he  thought  you  were  to 
be  back  every  fortnight.  He  thinks  che  scale  you  talk  of 
going  on  is  much  too  large,  and  especially  that  part  which 
respects  the  money.  You  converted  him  as  to  the  prefer- 
ence of  the  wheels  above  all  other  modes,  but  he  says  they 
cannot  be  patented  in  America  because  a  man  (I  forget 
his  name)  has  proposed  the  same  thing  there.  You  will 
soon  get  his  letter.  Parker  is  highly  gratified  with  your 
experiments;  he  wishes,  however,  something  fuiiidr-r  to 
remove  his  doubts — about  keeping  the  proportionsxtid  as. 
to  the  loss  of  power  in  different  velocities.  He  wisues  to 
have  another  barrelier  made,  four  times  as  strong  this 
or  thereabouts,  to  see  whether  the  proportional  velocity 
would  be  the  same  when  moving  by.  the  paddles  as  when 
moving  by  the  fixtuic  v.n  shore.  I  should  like  ^-o  see  this 
too.  If  you  desire  it,  I  can  take  this  barrelier  to  Cala  and 
see  whether  he  can  make' another  of  the  same  volume  four 


BARLOW  TO  FULTON. 


99 


times  as  strong,  and  know  what  it  will  cost.  The  relative 
velocities  can  be  tried  in  Perrier's  pond  on  the  hill." 

A  week  later  he  wrote  again  on  the  same  subject : 

Your  reasoning  is  perfectly  right  about  inventions 
and  the  spirit  of  the  patent  laws,  and  I  have  no  doubt  it 
may  be  secured  in  America.  ^  ^  ^  My  project  would 
be  that  you  should  pass  directly  over  to  England,  silent 
and  steady,  make  Chapman  construct  an  engine  of  twelve 
inches,  while  you  are  building  a  boat  of  a  proportionate 
size.  Make  the  experiments  on  that  scale,  all  quiet  and 
quick.  If  it  answers,  put  the  machinery  on  board  a  ves- 
sel and  go  directly  to  New  York  (ordering  another  engine 
as  large  as  you  please  to  follow  you),  then  secure  your 
patent  and  begin  your  operation,  first  small  and  then 
large.  I  think  I  will  find  you  the  funds  without  any  noise 
for  the  first  operation  in  England,  and  if  it  promises  well 
you  will  get  as  many  funds  and  friends  in  America  as  you 
want.  I  should  suggest  a  small  operation  first,  for  several 
reasons:  it  can  be  made  without  noise.  There  must  be 
imperfections  in  the  first  trial  which  you  can  remedy  with- 
out disgrace  if  done  without  noise;  you  can  easier  find 
funds  for  a  small  experiment,  etc.  ^         i  have 

talked  with  P.  on  your  observations  about  great  boats 
with  merchandise." 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Financial  troubles  of  Fulton  and  Livingston — Launch  and  trial  trip  of  the 
Clermont — Fulton's  account  of  the  first  voyage  to  Albany — Consternation 
along  the  river — Dr.  Perry's  narrative — Improvements  in  the  boat — Hos- 
tility of  river  men — Opposition  and  expensive  litigation — **  Pendulum 
boats." 

WHILE  occupied  with  his  torpedo  experi- 
ments, which  have  been  already  described, 
Mr.  Fulton  began  the  construction  of  the  steamboat 
which  was  to  navigate  the  Hudson  and  demonstrate 
the  feasibility  of  the  plans  to  which  he  and  Chancel- 
lor Livingston  had  devoted  their  thoughts  and  their 
money.  As  is  usually  the  case  in  affairs  of  this 
kind,  he  soon  found  that  the  expense  of  the  con- 
struction was  far  beyond  his  calculations.  He  had 
agreed  not  to  call  upon  Mr.  Livingston  for  more 
than  a  certain  amount,  but  circumstances  obligea 
him  to  break  this  compact  and,  like  Oliver  Twist, 
ask  for  more.  Mr.  Livingston  hesitated,  and  it 
was  arranged  that  Fulton  should  dispose  of  one 
third  of  their  joint  rights,  patents,  and  privileges  in 
consideration  of  the  needed  capital. 

Fulton  made  the  offer  to  several  gentlemen  of 
means,  and  the  fact  that  he  had  made  it  was  widely 
known,  but  no  one  was  willing  to  risk  his  money 


FINANCIAL  TROUBLES. 


lOI 


in  such  a  wild  scheme  as  the  construction  of  a 
steamboat.  Failure  to  obtain  a  third  party  to  join 
them  did  not  cause  Fulton  and  Livingston  to 
despair.  Between  them  they  advanced  the  addi- 
tional money  necessary  for  the  completion  of  the 
work,  and  the  enterprise  went  on.  Livingston  was 
wealthy  but  Fulton  was  not,  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  latter  had  considerable  difficulty  in  providing 
his  Fhare  of  the  funds. 


Engine  of  the  Clermont — 1807. 


In  a  recent  issue  of  the  New  York  Times  the 
following  anecdote  appeared  : 

Ha,  ha!  "  said  a  charming  old  gentleman  whose  mem- 
ory was  wonderful  for  his  age,  for  he  was  born  during  the 
first  ten  years  of  the  present  century.  Inventions!  You 
can't  get  them  always  right.  You  see  the  inventive  faculty 
is  one  thing  and  the  business  talent  to  work  out  inven- 
tions successfully  something  else.  A  good  many  people 
have  the  first,  but  very  few  the  other.  There  was  my 
father  and  Robert  Fulton.  It  's  a  family  story.  I  dare 
say  it  has  been  in  print  often  and  often,  but  you  can't 
wear  out  a  good  thing.  You  see,  my  father  and  Fulton 
were  quite  intimate.    Fulton  was  in  the  habit  of  coming 


I02 


ROBERT  FULTON'. 


to  see  my  father,  and,  having  steamboat  on  the  brain,  he 
probably  talked  my  father,  John  McKesson,  to  death.  It 
was  always  endless  chains  or  something  or  other.  My 
father  was  a  patient  listener,  and  that  's  a  talent.  One 
day  during  office  hours  Fulton  came  to  see  my  father. 
'  John/  said  he,  *  I  have  got  it  sure.    I  can  make  her 

go-' 

"  '  I  am  too  busy  to  listen  to  you  now,  Fulton.  I  tell 
you  what  you  do,  come  round  to  my  house  to-night.' 

^'  '  I  can't,'  said  Fulton.  '  What  I  want  to  see  you 
about  is  this:  I  must  have  $i,ooo.' 

"  '  Well,  I  have  n't  got  it  to  give  you.  But  anyhow, 
come  to  the  house  all  the  same.  You  can  take  tea  with 
us.  Then  you  can  talk  with  me  up  to  ten  o'clock  at 
night ;  then  if  you  are  not  through  I  shall  go  to  sleep.  I 
always  go  to  bed  at  ten.' 

Fulton  seemed  to  hesitate  for  a  while,  and  at  last  said 
he  would  come.  Fulton  did  come  round,  and  took  tea 
with  father.  Fulton  told  him  about  the  paddle-wheel. 
Father  thought  that  a  paddle-wheel  would  never  do. 
You  see,  in  those  times  they  were  cocksure  that  the  power 
used  to  lift  up  the  water  by  the  wheel  would  about  neu- 
tralize the  propelling  force.  Ha !  ha  !  those  old  fellows 
were  smart.    We  always  are  in  our  generation. 

'  Well,'  father  said,  '  Robert  Fulton,  your  wheel  is  no 
good.  It  would  never  work.  You  talk  about  making  the 
boat  go  four  miles  an  hour  !  That 's  an  unheard  of  speed. 
No,  sir.  With  a  wheel  on  your  boat  she  'd  stand  stock 
still.' 

Then  Robert  Fulton  argued  it  out  with  father,  and 
ten  o'clock  came,  and  father  was  getting  sleepy.  Just 
then  maybe  Fulton  got  more  excited,  or  father  more  at- 
tentive, and  it  was  eleven  o'clock  and  they  w^ere  talking 
over  it  still. 


FINANCIAL  TROUBLES. 


103 


'*'It  is  time  for  you  to  go  home,  Robert/  said  my 
father,  '  unless  you  would  Hke  to  have  a  bed  here,  and  you 
might  as  well  do  that.' 

^  If  I  do,'  answered  Fulton,  '  I  only  adjourn  the  talk 
until  to-morrow,  for  you  must  get  me  the  $1,000.'  Maybe 
Fulton  buttonholed  father  before  breakfast.  Anyhow, 
Fulton's  persuasive  powers  overcame  father's  doubts,  and 
he  agreed  that  he  would  do  his  best  to  raise  the  $1,000 
for  Fulton.  Right  after  breakfast  father  went  out,  and 
the  first  man  he  met  was  Robert  Lenox.  '  See  here,  Mr. 
Lenox,'  said  father,  '  I  want  some  money  from  you  to  help 
one  of  Fulton's  schemes.  You  may  not  believe  it  ever 
will  be  done,  but  the  man  fancies  that  he  can  make  a  boat 
go  four  miles  an  hour.  I  think  he  intends  using  steam, 
and  a  wheel,  or  something.  I  am  going  to  let  him  have 
$100.  Would  you  mind  putting  down  your  name  for  the 
same  sum  ?  ' 

^  It  seems  quite  preposterous,'  said  Mr.  Lenox  to  my 
father,  *  and  I  have  no  reason  to  belive  that  Mr.  Fulton's 
boat  will  ever  accomplish  what  he  thinks  it  will.  Still,  if 
your  name  is  down,  you  may  let  him  have  $100  from  me.' 

^  Then,'  said  my  father,  '  I  will  write  down  Robert 
Lenox,  $100."  ' 

'''No,  no,'  answered  Mr.  Lenox,  'just  put  down  the 
$100  with  no  name  to  it,  because  I  should  n't  like  the 
people  who  come  after  me  to  learn  that  I  was  such  a  dunce 
as  to  think  that  Fulton  or  anybody  else  ever  could  make 
a  boat  go  with  steam  or  wheels  four  miles  an  hour.' 

'^  That  's  the  story  my  father  told  me.  See  here,"  said 
the  pleasant  old  gentleman,  "  you  never  can  exactly  tell 
what  does  come  from  an  invention.  I  wonder  what  Ful- 
ton would  have  to  say  could  he  learn  how  those  rocks  at 
H*-'!!  Gate  had  to  be  blown  up  because  they  bothered 

it  fleet  of  steamers  which  has  to  pass  there  every  day. 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Eh  ?  eh  ? "  and  the  old  gentleman  gave  here  a  merry 
laugh.    "Anyhow,  Robert  Fulton  got  his  $i,ooo/' 

The  boat  was  built  at  the  ship-yard  of  Charles 
Brown  on  the  East  River,  and  was  completed  early 
in  the  spring  of  1807.  It  took  some  time  to  place 
the  engine  on  board,  and  it  was  not  until  August  of 
the  same  year  that  she  was  ready  for  trial.  Early 
one  morning  her  engines  were  put  in  motion  and 
she  was  moved  from  the  ship-yard  to  the  Jersey 
shore  ;  it  was  found  that  she  steered  easily,  and  her 
progress  was  satisfactory  to  her  owners. 

There  were  few  spectators  on  land,  as  at  that 
hour  most  persons  were  in  bed,  and  no  announcement 
had  been  made  of  the  intended  transfer.  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  excitement,  however,  among  the 
crews  of  vessels  in  the  harbor  as  they  saw  a  boat 
going  through  the  water  without  the  aid  of  sails, 
and  even  without  masts  for  carrying  them.  Many 
of  the  sailors  regarded  the  new  craft  with  supersti- 
tious dread,  as  they  had  heard  nothing  about  it  and 
were  unaware  of  the  power  of  steam. 

The  boat  was  130  feet  long,  16I  feet  wide,  and 
4  feet  deep,  and  measured  160  tons  by  the  custom- 
house regulations  then  in  force.  The  engine  had 
a  steam  cylinder  24  inches  in  diameter,  and  a 
stroke  of  4  feet.  The  boiler  was  20  feet  long,  7 
feet  deep,  and  8  feet  wide.  The  wheels  were  ^  5 
feet  in  diameter,  with  floats  of  4  feet  length  anc.  2 
feet  dip. 


io6 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


A  day  or  two  after  the  transfer  Fulton  and  Liv- 
ingston invited  their  friends  to  witness  the  trial  of 
the  steamboat  and  there  was  a  public  announce- 
ment of  the  affair  which  drew  a  considerable  assem- 
blage of  people.  Among  the  special  guests  was 
Dr.  Mitchell,  the  gentleman  who  secured  the  pas- 
sage of  the  first  bill  which  gave  Livingston  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  steam  navigation  in  the 
waters  of  New  York  for  twenty  years,  and  there 
were  also  several  other  members  of  the  Legislature. 
Invitations  were  also  sent  to  gentlemen  who  had 
opposed  the  project  and  denounced  it  as  ridiculous ; 
some  of  them  came  to  witness  what  they  expected 
would  be  a  failure,  but  others  declined  to  be 
present  as  they  were  unwilling  to  treat  the  affair  as 
worthy  of  consideration. 

Concerning  the  trial  trip  Mr.  Colden  writes  as 
follows  : 

Nothing  could  exceed  the  surprise  and  admiration  of 
all  who  witnessed  the  experiment.  The  minds  of  the 
most  incredulous  were  changed  in  a  few  minutes.  Before 
the  boat  had  made  the  progress  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  the 
greatest  unbeliever  must  have  been  converted.  The  man 
who,  while  he  looked  on  the  expensive  machine,  thanked 
his  stars  that  he  had  more  wisdom  than  to  waste  his 
money  on  such  idle  schemes,  changed  the  expression  of 
his  features  as  the  boat  moved  from  the  wharf  and  gained 
her  speed  ;  his  complacent  smile  gradually  stiffened  into 
an  expression  of  wonder.  The  jeers  of  the  ignorant,  who 
had  neither  sense  nor  feeling  enough  to  suppress  their 


TRIAL  TRIP  OF  THE  CLERMONT. 


107 


contemptuous  ridicule  and  rude  jokes,  were  silenced  for  a 
moment  by  a  vulgar  astonishment,  which  deprived  them 
of  the  power  of  utterance,  till  the  triumph  of  genius 
extorted  from  the  incredulous  multitude  which  crowded 
the  shores,  shouts  and  acclamations  of  congratulation  and 
applause." 

During  this  trial  trip  Fulton  perceived  an  error 
in  the  form  of  the  wheels  ;  after  a  run  of  a  few 
miles  she  returned  to  her  starting-point  and  the 
inventor  caused  the  diameter  of  the  buckets  to  be 
lessened  so  that  they  did  not  dip  so  deeply  in  the 
water.  Another  trial  was  then  made,  and  it  was 
found  that  her  speed  improved  under  the  alteration. 
Shortly  after  the  trial  the  boat  was  advertised  to 
run  to  Albany,  and  as  soon  as  she  could  be  got  in 
readiness  the  Clermont"  sailed  on  her  first  voy- 
age up  the  Hudson. 

The  date  of  the  departure  of  this  memorable  trip 
is  differently  given  by  several  writers,  but  the 
weight  of  evidence  is  in  favor  of  Monday,  August 
iith.  Mr.  Fulton  wrote  the  following  letter  after 
his  return  : 

"  New  York,  Sept.  15,  1807. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  'American  Citizen' 
''Sir: — I  arrived  this  afternoon,  at  four  o'clock, 
in  the  steamboat  from  Albany.  As  the  success  of 
my  experiment  gives  me  great  hopes  that  such 
boats  may  be  rendered  of  great  importance  to  my 
country,  to  prevent  erroneous  opinions  and  give 


io8 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


some  satisfaction  to  the  friends  of  useful  improve- 
ments, you  will  have  the  goodness  to  publish  the 
following-  statement  of  facts  : 

I  left  New  York  on  Monday  at  one  o'clock, 
and  arrived  at  Clermont,  the  seat  of  Chancellor 
Livingston,  at  one  o'clock  on  Tuesday — time, 
twenty-four  hours,  distance,  one  hundred  and  ten 
miles.  On  Wednesday,  I  departed  from  the  Chan- 
cellors  at  nine  in  the  morning,  and  arrived  at 
Albany  at  five  in  the  afternoon — distance,  forty 
miles,  time,  eight  hours.  The  sum  is  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  in  thirty-two  hours,  equal  to  near 
five  miles  an  hour. 

On  Thursday,  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
I  left  Albany,  and  arrived  at  the  Chancellor  s  at 
six  in  the  evening :  I  started  from  thence  at  seven, 
and  arrived  at  New  York  at  four  in  the  afternoon 
— time,  thirty  hours,  space  run  through,  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles,  equal  to  five  miles  an  hour. 
Throughout  my  whole  way,  both  going  and  retr>rn- 
ing,  the  wind  was  ahead  ;  no  advantage  could  be 
derived  from  my  sails  :  the  whole  has,  therefore, 
been  performed  by  the  power  of  the  steam-engine. 
I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

Robert  Fulton." 
He  gives  the  following  account  of  the  same  voy- 
age in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Mr.  Barlow  : 

My  steamboat  voyage  to  Albany  and  back  has 
turned  out  rather  more  favorable  than  I  had  calcu- 


TRIAL  TRIP  OF  THE  CLERMONT. 


109 


lated.  The  distance  from  New  York  to  Albany  is 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  :  I  ran  it  up  in  thirty- 
two  hours,  and  down  in  thirty.  I  had  a  light 
breeze  against  me  the  whole  way,  both  going  and 
coming,  and  the  voyage  has  been  performed  wholly 
by  the  power  of  the  steam-engine.  I  overtook 
many  sloops  and  schooners  beating  to  windward, 
and  parted  with  them  as  if  they  had  been  at 
anchor. 

**The  power  of  propelling  boats  by  steam  is  now 
fully  proved.  The  morning  I  left  New  York,  there 
were  not  perhaps  thirty  persons  in  the  city  who 
believed  that  the  boat  would  ever  move  one  mile 
an  hour,  or  be  of  the  least  utility  ;  and  while  we 
were  putting  off  from  the  wharf,  which  was  crowd- 
ed with  spectators,  I  heard  a  number  of  sarcastic 
remarks.  This  is  the  way  in  which  ignorant  men 
compliment  what  they  call  philosophers  and  pro- 
jectors. 

Having  employed  much  time,  money,  and  zeal, 
in  accomplishing  this  work,  it  gives  me,  as  it  will 
you,  great  pleasure  to  see  it  fully  answer  my  expec- 
tations. It  will  give  a  cheap  and  quick  conveyance 
to  the  merchandise  on  the  Mississippi,  Missouri, 
and  other  great  rivers,  which  are  now  laying  open 
their  treasures  to  the  enterprise  of  our  countrymen  ; 
and  although  the  prospect  of  personal  emolument 
has  been  some  inducement  to  me,  yet  I  feel  infinite- 
ly more  pleasure  in  reflecting  on  the  immense 


no 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


advantage  my  country  will  derive  from  the  inven- 
tion/' etc. 

The  passengers  on  board  the  boat,  on  her  first 
passage  as  a  Packet,  published  a  statement,  over 
their  signatures,  that  the  speed,  accommodations, 
and  conveniences  far  exceed  their  most  sanguine 
expectations. 

The  following  letter  tells  how  the  people  along 
the  river  were  excited  by  the  passage  of  the  steam- 
boat on  her  voyage  from  New  York  to  Albany: 

SOUDERSBURG,  LANCASTER  Co.,  yail.  4,  1 856. 

''J.  Franklin  Reigart,  Esq.  ^ 

''Dear  Sir: — Having  been  informed  that  you 
are  about  to  publish  a  history  of  Robert  Fulton, 
who  was  distinguished  for  many  noble  inventions, 
allow  me  to  state  that  the  publication  of  the  narra- 
tive of  facts  as  they  happened,  and  the  description 
of  his  productions,  would  be  exceedingly  interest- 
ing to  the  admirers  of  genius  and  every  lover  of 
the  arts  and  sciences.  The  works  of  Fulton  are 
now  justly  appreciated,  and  the  citizens  of  this 
matchless  county  will  forever  honor  the  name  and 
birthplace  of  his  genius. 

It  was  in  the  early  autumn  of  the  year  1807, 
that  a  knot  of  villagers  was  gathered  on  a  high 
bluff  just  opposite  Poughkeepsie,  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Hudson,  attracted  by  the  appearance  of  a 
strange  dark-looking  craft,  which  was  slowly  making 


TRIAL  TRIP  OF  THE  CLERMONT. 


Ill 


its  way  up  the  river.  Some  imagined  it  to  be  a 
sea-monster,  whilst  others  did  not  hesitate  to 
express  their  behef  that  it  was  a  sign  of  the 
approaching  judgment.  What  seemed  strange  in 
the  vessel  was  the  substitution  of  lofty  and  strange 
black  smoke-pipes,  rising  from  the  deck,  instead  of 
the  gracefully  tapered  masts  that  commonly  stood 
on  the  vessels  navigating  the  stream,  and,  in  place 
of  the  spars  and  rigging,  the  curious  play  of  the 
working-beam  and  pistons,  and  the  slow  turning, 
and  splashing  of  the  huge  and  naked  paddle- 
wheels,  met  the  astonished  gaze.  The  dense 
clouds  of  smoke,  as  they  rose  wave  upon  wave, 
added  still  more  to  the  wonder  of  the  rustics. 

This  strange-looking  craft  was  the  Clermont, 
on  her  trial  trip  to  Albany  ;  and  of  the  little  knot 
of  villagers  above  mentioned,  the  writer,  then,  a 
boy  in  his  eighth  year,  with  his  parents,  formed  a 
part ;  and  I  well  remember  the  scene,  one  so  well 
fitted  to  impress  a  lasting  picture  upon  the  mind  of 
a  child  accustomed  to  watch  the  vessels  that  passed 
up  and  down  the  river. 

The  forms  of  four  persons  were  distinctly  visi- 
ible  on  the  deck,  as  she  passed  the  bluff — one  of 
whom,  doubtless,  was  Robert  Fulton,  who  had  on 
board  with  him  all  the  cherished  hopes  of  years, 
the  most  precious  cargo  the  wonderful  boat  could 
carry. 

On  her  return  trip,  the  curiosity  she  excited 


112 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


was  scarcely  less  intense — the  whole  country  talked 
of  nothing  but  the  sea-monster,  belching  forth  fire 
and  smoke.  The  fishermen  became  terrified,  and 
rowed  homewards,  and  they  saw  nothing  but 
destruction,  devastating  their  fishing  grounds ; 
whilst  the  wreaths  of  black  vapor,  and  rushing 
noise  of  the  paddle-wheels,  foaming  with  the  stirred- 
up  waters,  produced  great  excitement  amongst  the 
boatmen,  until  it  was  more  intelligent  than  before  ; 
for  the  character  of  that  curious  boat,  and  the 
nature  of  the  enterprise  which  she  was  pioneering, 
had  been  ascertained.  From  that  time  Robert 
Fulton  became  known  and  respected  as  the  author 
and  builder  of  the  first  Steam- Packet;  from  which 
we  plainly  see  the  rapid  improvemont  in  commerce 
and  civilization.  Who  can  doubt  that  Fulton's  first 
packet  boat  has  been  the  model  steamer?  Except 
in  finer  finish  and  greater  size,  there  is  no  difference 
between  it  and  the  splendid  steamships  now  cross- 
ing the  Atlantic  Who  can  doubt  that  Fulton  saw 
the  meeting  of  all  nations  upon  his  boats,  gathering 
together  in  unity  and  harmony,  that  the  '  freedom 
of  the  seas  would  be  the  happiness  of  the  earth '  ? 
Who  can  doubt  that  Fulton  saw  the  world  circum- 
navigated by  steam,  and  that  his  invention  was 
carrying  the  messages  of  freedom  to  every  land, 
that  no  man  could  tell  all  its  benefits,  or  describe 
all  its  wonders  ?  '  What  a  wonderful  achieve- 
ment ! '    '  What  a  splendid  triumph  ! '    Fulton  was  a 


TRIAL  TRIP  OF  THE  CLERMONT.  II3 

man  of  unparalleled  foresight  and  perseverance. 
His  character  and  genius  rise  higher  in  our  estima- 
tion, and  still  more  grandly  before  our  minds,  the 
more  we  contemplate  him.  To  write  this  history 
requires  the  noblest  effort,  and  I  trust  you  will  be 
able  to  accomplish  it.  With  my  best  wishes  for 
your  success,  I  subscribe  myself. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

H.  Freeland." 

The  following  letter  descriptive  of  the  first  voy- 
age of  the  Clermont  from  Albany  was  written  by 
Fulton  and  sent  to  Chancellor  Robert  R.  Living- 
ston, grandfather  of  Clermont  Livingston,  in  whose 
keeping  the  letter  now  is : 

"  New  York, 
Saturday,  the  28th  of  August^  1807. 

Dear  Sir  : — On  Saturday  I  wrote  you  that  I 
arrived  here  on  Friday  at  four  o'clock,  which  made 
my  voyage  from  Albany  exactly  thirty  hours.  We 
had  a  little  wind  on  Friday  morning,  but  no  waves 
which  produced  any  effect.  I  have  been  making 
every  exertion  to  get  off  on  Monday  morning,  but 
there  has  been  much  work  to  do — boarding  all  the 
sides,  decking  over  the  boiler  and  works,  finishing 
each  cabin  with  twelve  berths  to  make  them  com- 
fortable, and  strengthening  many  parts  of  the  iron 
work.  So  much  to  do,  and  the  rain,  which  delays 
the  caulkers,  will,  I  fear,  not  let  me  off  till  Wednes- 
day morning.     Then,  however,  the  boat  will  be  as 


114  ROBERT  FULTON. 

complete  as  she  can  be  made — all  strong  and  in 
good  order  and  the  men  well  organized,  and  I 
hope,  nothing  to  do  but  to  run  her  for  six  weeks  or 
two  months.  The  first  week,  that  is  if  she  starts 
on  Wednesday,  she  will  make  one  trip  to  Albany 
and  back.  Every  succeeding  week  she  will  run 
three  trips — that  is,  two  to  Albany  and  one  to  New 
York,  or  two  to  New  York  and  one  to  Albany 
always  having  Sunday  and  four  nights  for  rest  to 
the  crew.  By  carrying  for  the  usual  price  there 
can  be  no  doubt  but  the  steamboat  will  have  the 
preference  because  of  the  certainty  and  agreeable 
movements.  I  have  seen  the  captain  of  the  fine 
sloop  from  Hudson.  He  says  the  average  of  his 
passages  have  been  forty-eight  hours.  For  the 
steamboat  it  would  have  been  thirty  certain.  The 
persons  who  came  down  with  me  were  so  much 
pleased  that  they  said  were  she  established  to  run 
periodically  they  never  would  go  in  any  thing  else. 
I  will  have  her  registered  and  every  thing  done 
which  I  can  recollect.  Every  thing  looks  well  and 
I  have  no  doubt  will  be  very  productive. 

Yours  truly, 

Robert  Fulton." 
''You  may  look  for  me  Thursday  morning  about 
seven  o'clock.  I  think  it  would  be  well  to  write  to 
your  brother  Edward  to  get  information  on  the 
velocity  of  the  Mississippi,  the  size  and  form  of  the 
boats  used,  the  number  of  hands  and  quantity  of 


DR.  PERRY'S  NARRATIVE.  II5 

tons  in  each  boat,  the  number  of  miles  they  make 
against  the  current  in  twelve  hours,  and  the  quan- 
tity of  tons  which  go  up  the  river  in  a  year.  On 
this  point  beg  of  him  to  be  accurate." 


Having  been  informed  that  Dr.  William  Perry 
of  Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  was  a  passenger  on 
the  Clermont  on  her  first  voyage,  the  author  of 
this  volume  addressed  him  on  the  subject  and 
received  the  following  reply  : 

"Exeter,  N.  H.,  yune  12,  1885. 

''Col.  Thomas  W.  Knox. 

''  My  Dear  Sir  : — You  may  remember  me  in  con- 
nection w^ith  the  Cincinnati  Gazette  and  the  Phila- 
delphia Exposition. 

For  some  years  I  have  been  living  quietly  in  this 
my  native  town,  contributing  to  the  Cincinnati 
Commercial  Gazette,  and  other  western  papers  and 
periodicals,  and  living  within  reach  of  my  father,  to 
whom  you  have  just  written.  He  is  in  good  health, 
neither  blind  nor  deaf,  and  with  no  internal  dis- 
order, his  only  trouble  being  that  his  legs  are  weak, 
so  that  his  walks  must  be  short  and  slow.  He  was 
born  Dec,  20,  i  788,  and  is  now  the  oldest  living  gra- 
duate of  Harvard.  He  writes  letters  occasionally, 
but  not  as  readily  as  once,  so  I  have  volunteered  to 
take  down  what  he  has  to  say,  and  will  give  it  in 


ii6 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


his  own  words  and  in  the  first  person.  I  ought 
to  premise  that  the  voyage  he  describes  was  not 
the  trial  trip  of  the  skeleton  of  Fulton's  steamer  in 
1807,  but  its  first  voyage  with  passengers  in  the 
spring  of  1808.    Now  for  the  narrative. 

Sincerely  yours, 

John  T.  Perry." 

In  April,  1808,  I  left  Union  College,  Schenec- 
tady, where  my  brother,  the  late  Gardiner  B.  Perry, 
D.  D.,  had  been  tutor,  to  go  to  my  birthplace, 
Norton,  Mass.,  and  to  enter  Harvard  College  in 
the  fall,  for  which  last  my  stay  in  Schenectady  had 
been  a  preparation.  I  was  then  in  my  twentieth 
year,  and  had  in  charge  a  lady  from  Hartford,  who 
was  on  her  way  home.  On  reaching  Albany,  I 
found  that  none  of  the  sail  boats,  then  in  use,  were 
to  start  for  several  days.  So  I  engaged  a  room  for 
myself  at  a  public  house,  the  lady  going  to  the 
house  of  some  friends.  Early  the  next  morning  a 
man,  evidently  a  person  who  loved  his  glass,  rushed 
into  the  bar-room  and  cried  out  that  the  steamboat 
had  come  in  during  the  night  and  would  go  down 
river  at  nine  o'clock.  It  took  so  much  time  to  hunt 
up  my  charge,  and  she  was  so  long  in  getting  ready, 
that  the  boat  had  started  when  we  reached  the 
wharf.  I  hailed  her,  however,  and  a  small  boat  was 
sent  out  to  take  us  on  board.  There  were  more 
than  fifty  passengers,  many  of  them  youths  and 


DI^.  PERRY'S  NARRATIVE. 


117 


children.  I  soon  noticed  Mr.  Fulton,  who  was 
watching  and  directing  every  thing.  He  was  of 
medium  height,  slimly  built,  and  so  much  absorbed 
in  looking  after  the  craft  that  he  had  no  time  or  in- 
clination to  talk  with  any  one.  I  once  saw  him 
leaning  in  an  absorbed  manner  over  a  chair.  He 
had  a  shoe  on  one  foot,  and  only  a  stocking  on  the 
other.  I  looked  over  the  stern  of  the  boat  and 
read  the  name  '  Katherine  of  Clermont.'  It  was 
that  of  Fulton's  wife,  daughter  of  the  Livingston 
of  Clermont  Manor.  Most  accounts  say  the  title 
was  simply  '  The  Clermont,'  but  I  cannot  be  mis- 
taken. She  was  a  common  open  river  boat  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  long,  with  no  deck, 
and  the  boys  were  running  about  everywhere. 
The  only  cabin  was  a  small  room  over  the  bows. 
It  was  claimed  that  the  Katherine  would  run  six 
miles  an  hour,  but  she  did  not  make  that  time. 
Her  paddle  wheels  were  at  the  side,  and  her  tube 
(or  smoke-stack)  was  of  sheet  iron.  I  think  my 
fare  to  Kingston  was  three  dollars. 

''The  first  part  of  the  voyage  was  quiet  enough, 
but  in  the  afternoon  we  ran  aground,  as  many 
thought,  through  the  treachery  of  some  of  the  crew, 
for  the  owners  of  sloops  and  other  sailing  craft 
were  much  in  dread  of  the  result  of  the  successful 
inauguration  of  steam  power.  I  got  off  at  Esopus 
—  now  Kingston — as  did  my  companion,  and  so 
missed  being  present  at  the  bursting  of  the  boiler, 


ii8 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


which  occurred  near  West  Point.  Being  of  sheet 
iron  no  damage  was  done  besides  stopping  the 
works  and  frightening  the  passengers.  A  week  or 
ten  days  later  I  was  in  New  York,  going  there  in  a 
sloop.  The  steamer,  which  I  hunted  up,  was  under- 
going repairs  at  the  docks. 

Among  the  passengers  was  a  Mr.  Lyon,  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  Connecticut  or  Vermont,  I 
forget  which,  who  was  quite  notorious  at  the  time 
on  account  of  a  hand-to-hand  encounter  at  Wash- 
ington on  the  floor  of  the  House.  He  kept  away 
from  the  crowd  most  of  the  time,  staying  in  the 
little  cabin. 

As  I  have  said,  the  owners  of  sailing  craft  were 
jealous  of  Fulton,  and  soon  after  they  got  an  in- 
junction, restraining  him  from  using  his  steamboat, 
on  the  ground  that  the  navigation  of  the  river  be- 
lonp^ed  to  them.  He  secured  Daniel  Webster  for 
his  counsel,  and  won  his  case,  though  he  afterward 
had  much  trouble  about  patent  rights.  The  case 
was  a  very  important  one,  not  only  in  the  principle 
involved,  but  on  account  of  the  number  and  in- 
fluence of  Fulton's  opponents." 


DR.  PERRY'S  NARRATIVE. 


119 


The  signature  to  the  letter  as  herewith  printed 
is  a  fac-shmle  of  the  signature  appended  to  the 
original  by  Dr.  Perry. 

The  reader  will  note  Dr.  Perry's  statement  that 
the  name  of  the  steamer  was  Katherine  of  Cler- 
mont." The  author  has  examined  all  accessible 
biographies  of  Fulton  and  accounts  of  the  inaugu- 
ration of  steamboats  on  the  Hudson,  and  in  none 
of  them  does  he  find  the  steamer  designated  other- 
wise than  as  the  Clermont.  In  1805  Mr.  Fulton 
married  Harriet,  daughter  of  Walter  Livingston, 
who  was  a  relative  of  Fulton's  friend  and  partner. 
Chancellor  Livingston,  consequently  Dr.  Perry  is 
not  correct  in  giving  the  name  of  Fulton's  wife  as 
Katherine,  and  his  memory  may  be  equally  at  fault 
respecting  the  appellation  of  the  steamboat,  though 
there  cannot  be  the  least  doubt  of  his  entire  sincer- 
ity. He  has  long  been  a  prominent  citizen  of 
Exeter,  and  is  greatly  beloved  and  revered  by  his 
fellow  townsmen. 

During  the  autumn  of  1807  the  Clermont  con- 
tinued to  run  as  a  packet,  and  so  great  was  the 
curiosity  concerning  her  and  the  appreciation  of 
her  quick  passages,  that  she  nearly  always  had  as 
many  passengers  as  she  could  accommodate.  Sev- 
eral accidents  occurred  to  her  machinery  owing  to 
defects  in  its  construction,  but  none  of  them  caused 
any  loss  of  life  ;  there  were  so  many  of  these  mis- 
haps, however,  that  the  incredulous  were  encour- 


I20 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


aged  in  the  belief  that  she  was  a  failure,  and  numer- 
ous predictions  were  made  that  she  would  never 
resume  her  trips  after  the  end  of  the  year.  In 
some  respects  she  was  a  disappointment  to  Fulton, 
as  she  did  not  meet  his  calculations  in  regard  to 
speed,  and  he  spent  much  of  his  time  in  trying  to 
discover  the  cause  of  the  deficiency.  His  friends 
say  that  in  every  instance  he  found  it  was  due 
to  faults  of  construction  either  of  boat  or  engines, 
and  not  to  any  error  in  his  own  figures  ;  he  made 
plans  for  alterations  while  she  was  still  on  the  route, 
and  as  soon  as  she  was  laid  up  for  the  winter  he 
began  the  work  of  overhauling. 

The  shafts  of  the  wheels  were  originally  made 
of  cast  iron,  which  was  found  incapable  of  sustain- 
ing the  weight  of  the  wheels  and  the  power  applied 
to  them.  Several  breakages  occurred  during  the 
first  season  ;  while  laid  up  for  the  winter  the  boat 
was  provided  with  wrought-iron  shafts,  which  pre- 
vented a  recurrence  of  these  mishaps.  Then,  too, 
there  were  no  supports  for  the  outward  ends  of  the 
shafts  and  the  wheels  were  entirely  exposed  to 
view.  During  the  winter  the  Clermont  was 
extended  to  a  length  of  one  hundred  and  forty  feet 
while  her  beam,  originally  sixteen  and  one  half  feet, 
remained  unchanged.  The  shafts  of  the  wheels 
were  provided  with  wheel-guards  or  outer  supports, 
and  several  minor  improvements  were  made  in  the 
machinery  and  fittings  of  the  boat ;  altogether  the 


HOSTILITY  OF  RIVER  MEN. 


121 


Clermont  of  1808  was  a  considerable  advance  upon 
the  Clermont  of  1807. 

But  the  misfortunes  of  the  boat  were  not  limited 
to  accidents  to  machinery  and  other  legitimate  mis- 
haps ;  they  included  wilful  attempts  at  her  destruc- 
tion on  the  part  of  those  who  felt  that  their  busi- 
ness was  about  to  be  injured  by  the  new  system  of 
navigation.  Vessels  ran  foul  of  her  intentionally, 
and  so  determined  were  the  sloop  owners  and 
others  to  rid  themselves  of  this  dangerous  competi- 
tor that  it  was  necessary  for  the  Legislature  to 
interfere.  At  its  session  in  the  winter  of  1807-8  a 
law  was  passed  to  prolong  for  five  years  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  Livingston  and  Fulton  for 
each  additional  boat  they  should  build  and  establish 
on  the  river ;  provided,  that  the  whole  time  should 
not  exceed  thirty  years  from  the  passage  of  the 
law.  A  clause  was  added  to  this  act  declaring  that 
combinations  to  destroy  the  Clermont  or  any  other 
steamboat,  or  wilful  attempts  to  injure  her,  were 
public  offences  punishable  by  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. 

Fulton  was  further  annoyed,  as  suggested  by  Dr. 
Perry,  by  infringements  of  his  patent  rights.  From 
the  first  his  boat  was  open  to  the  inspection  of 
everybody,  and  naturally  she  attracted  much  atten- 
tion. Not  only  was  she  visited  by  those  who  went 
from  motives  of  curiosity,  but  by  individuals  w^ho 
had  an  eye  to  business.     Fulton  had  applied  for 


122 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


patents  soon  after  beginning  the  construction  of  the 
Clermont  but  as  he  progressed  he  made  various 
improvements  in  the  machinery  which  were  not 
covered  in  his  original  applications.  When  the  boat 
was  completed  and  he  had  made  her  trial  trip  there 
were  obvious  improvements  which  would  suggest 
themselves  to  an  intelligent  mechanic  as  readily  as 
to  the  builder  himself.  One  of  these  improvements 
was  the  wheel-guard,  or  outer  support  for  the  wheel- 
shafts,  which  has  been  already  mentioned  ;  it  is  said 
to  have  been  thought  of  by  Fulton  before  the 
launching  of  the  boat,  but  was  not  made  owing  to 
lack  of  time  and  the  necessity  of  economy.  Some 
of  the  visiting  mechanics  who  had  scoffed  at  the 
steamboat  as  the  idle  fancy  of  a  dreamer  did  not 
hesitate  to  take  out  patents  for  improvements  on 
his  work ;  they  were  even  audacious  enough  to 
apply  for  patents  covering  the  devices  which  had 
already  been  recorded  to  Fulton's  credit  in  the 
archives  of  the  patent  office. 

Litigation  threatened  to  swallow  up  all  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  enterprise,  and  to  litigation  was  added 
competition  from  the  builders  of  rival  steamboats. 
These  men  defied  the  law  by  which  Fulton  and 
Livingston  had  received  exclusive  privileges,  and 
employed  counsel  to  find  loopholes  in  the  act  of  the 
Legislature.  As  a  coach  and  six  can  be  driven 
through  an  act  of  the  British  Parliament,  in  like 
manner  a  steamboat  can  pass  through  a  law  of  the 


OPPOSITION  AND  LITIGATION. 


123 


State  of  New  York  with  less  liability  to  injury  than 
in  the  tortuous  channel  of  Harlem  River. 

History  repeated  itself  in  the  case  of  Fulton  as 
it  has  repeated  itself  in  the  case  of  every  inventor 
whose  invention  proves  successful.  Human  nature 
is  the  same  in  all  ages,  and  until  the  millennium 
comes  every  inventor  whose  work  promises  to  yield 
a  pecuniary  advantage  will  be  assailed  by  unprinci- 
pled men  who  would  rob  him  of  glory,  profit,  and 
good  name,  in  order  to  benefit  themselves.  Such 
is  the  history  of  inventions  from  the  day  that 
patent  laws  were  first  enacted,  down  to  the  moment 
these  lines  are  written,  and  such  will  it  be  until 
patent  laws  are  no  longer  needed,  because  the  world 
is  so  filled  with  inventions  that  it  can  contain  no 
more. 

Fulton's  first  patent  for  improvements  in  naviga- 
tion by  steam  is  dated  February  eleventh,  1809; 
on  the  ninth  of  February,  181 1,  he  took  out  a 
second  patent  for  improvements  which  covered  the 
boats  and  machinery.  But  others  had  gone  ahead 
of  him  in  patenting  some  of  his  own  inventions,  and 
hence  his  expensive  and  dispiriting  litigation. 

One  of  the  devices  by  which  attempts  were  made 
to  defraud  him  was  a  boat  to  be  run  by  a  pendu- 
lum. An  ingenious,  and  alleged  respectable, 
gentleman  constructed  a  boat  of  this  sort ;  while 
she  lay  on  the  stocks  and  her  wheels  were  in  the 
air  and  met  no  resistance  the  machinery  performed 


124 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


very  well  when  the  pendulum  was  set  in  motion. 
But  as  soon  as  the  boat  was  put  in  the  water  it 
was  found  that  the  pendulum  would  not  propel  the 
machinery  without  the  application  of  a  great  power 
to  the  pendulum,  and  the  only  power  the  inventor 
could  think  of  was  steam  ;  so  he  rigged  up  a  steam 
engine  to  run  the  pendulum  while  the  pendulum 
was  to  run  the  boat  !  He  obtained  a  patent  for 
this  product  of  his  genius,  and  as  Fulton  had  dem- 
onstrated the  commercial  advantages  of  boats  pro- 
pelled by  some  other  power  than  the  wind,  he  had 
no  difificulty  in  obtaining  abundant  capital  for 
building  pendulum  boats  and  paying  for  the  litiga- 
tion which  sought  to  drive  Fulton  into  poverty  and 
disgrace. 

On  this  subject,  Mr.  Colden  says,  pages  185  and 
186  : 

^'  Messrs.  Livingston  and  Fulton  attempted  to  vindicate 
their  rights  and  to  stop  these  boats  by  an  application  to 
the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for  an  injunction, 
but  the  judge  decided  that  he  had  not  jurisdiction  in  the 
case.  They  then  made  the  same  appHcation  to  the  Court 
of  Chancery  of  the  State,  but  the  Chancellor,  after  hearing 
an  argument  for  several  days,  refused  to  grant  an  injunc- 
tion. From  this  decision  there  was  an  appeal,  and,  in  the 
winter  of  181 2,  the  Court  of  Errors,  which,  when  the  ap- 
peal is  from  Chancery,  is  composed  of  the  Senate  of  the 
State  and  the  five  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  unani- 
mously reversed  the  decision  of  the  Chancellor  and  or- 
dered a  perpetual  injunction,  so  that  the  boats  could  no 


OPPOSITION  AND  LITIGA  TION, 


125 


more  be  moved  with  steam  than  they  could  with  a  pen- 
dulum. 

The  true  merits  of  the  members  of  this  Pendulum 
Company  were  happily  exposed  in  the  learned,  eloquent, 
and  ingenious  argument  which  Mr.  Emmet,  as  counsel 
for  the  appellants,  made  on  this  occasion  before  the 
Court  of  Errors.  In  characterizing  the  members  of 
this  company  and  contrasting  them  with  Mr.  Fulton,  he 
described  them  as  '  men  who  never  wasted  health  and 
life  in  midnight  vigils  and  painful  study;  who  never 
dreamt  of  science  in  the  broken  slumbers  of  an  ex- 
hausted mind  ;  who  bestowed  on  the  construction  of  a 
steamboat  just  as  much  mathematical  calculation  and 
philosophical  research  as  in  the  purchase  of  a  sack  of 
wheat  or  a  barrel  of  ashes.*  " 

The  laws  having  proved  insufficient  to  prevent 
the  building  and  running  of  boats  in  opposition  to 
the  rights  of  Fulton  and  Livingston,  the  Legisla- 
ture in  181 1  passed  a  supplementary  act  for  their 
relief.  In  this  act  certain  summary  remedies  were 
provided  against  such  persons  as  should  violate  the 
existing  laws,  but  though  they  restricted,  they 
could  not  wholly  suppress  the  competition.  Two 
boats  which  were  then  running  on  the  Hudson, 
and  one  on  Lake  Champlain,  were  exempted  from 
the  provisions  of  this  act.  This  exemption  was  not 
intended  as  a  compromise  measure  or  as  an  ap- 
proval of  their  opposition,  but  because  the  sum- 
mary proceedings  might  be  considered,  in  applica- 
tion to  these  boats,  as  having  an  ex-post-facto  char- 


126 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


acter,  and  would,  therefore,  be  in  violation  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  In  regard  to 
these  existing  boats,  Fulton  and  Livingston  were 
in  the  same  position  as  before  the  passage  of  the 
act. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


The  successors  of  the  Clermont — Increase  of  speed — East  River  ferry- 
boats— The  "horse-ferry" — Boat  on  Long  Island  Sound — Boats  on 
the  Mississippi — Plans  for  a  war  steamer — The  first  war  steamer  in  the 
world — Her  description,  performance,  and  fate — The  death  of  Fulton. 

ALL  the  pictures  of  the  Clermont  represent  her 
as  having  a  hull  much  like  that  of  the  sloop  of 
the  time  and  equipped  with  two  small  masts  and  a 
bowsprit.  The  funnel  was  much  taller  in  propor- 
tion to  the  side  of  the  boat  than  is  the  case  with  the 
steamboats  of  the  present  time,  but  this  may  have 


Clermont,  1807. 

arisen  from  the  fact  that  she  burned  pine  wood  and 
required  excessive  draft  to  her  furnaces.  As  she 
poured  forth  volumes  of  smoke  by  day  and  showers 


128 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


of  sparks  by  night  it  is  no  wonder  that  she  filled  the 
minds  of  the  sailors  on  the  river  and  the  inhabitants 
along  its  banks  with  the  direst  apprehensions  of 
impending  calamities. 

The  picture  representing  the  departure  of  the 
Clermont  on  her  first  voyage  is  reproduced  from 
Reigart's  Biography  of  Fulton.  As  Mr.  Reigart 
had  access  to  the  papers  and  drawings  in  possession 
of  Mr.  Fulton's  family  it  is  asssumed  that  the  sketch 
is  authentic. 

The  first  voyage  of  the  Clermont  demonstrated 
beyond  a  doubt  the  advantages  which  a  steamboat 
possessed  over  the  sailing  craft  of  the  time.  With 
the  vicissitudes  of  wind  and  tide  the  sloops  and 
schooners  then  navigating  the  Hudson  were  fre- 
quently a  week  or  more  between  New  York  and 
Albany,  and  a  passage  of  four  days  was  considered 
a  remarkably  short  one.  Accomplishing  the  up- 
ward journey  in  thirty-two  hours'  running  time  and 
the  downward  one  in  thirty,  the  Clermont  settled 
the  question  of  competition  between  sails  and  steam 
in  a  way  that  left  no  room  for  discussion.  Time 
was  of  consequence  to  the  traveller  of  those  days 
as  in  the  present,  and  in  no  other  way  could  the 
new  craft  appeal  more  strongly  to  the  American 
mind  than  in  shortening  the  voyage  of  the  Hudson 
by  more  than  three  fourths.  When  she  began  run- 
ning regularly  as  a  passenger  packet  she  made  the 
round  trip  in  seventy-two  hours,  so  that  a  merchant 


THE  SUCCESSORS  OF  THE  CLERMONT.  1 29 


could  count  on  going  to  Albany  and  returning  to 
New  York  in  less  time  than  he  had  formerly  re- 
quired for  the  journey  either  way. 

The  fares  were  certainly  high  enough  to  be 
remunerative  if  the  boats  were  even  moderately 
patronized.  They  were  as  follows  :  From  New 
York  to  Verplanck  s  Point,  $2  ;  West  Point,  $2.50  ; 
Newburg,  $3  ;  Wappinger  s  Creek,  $3.25  ;  Pough- 


Car  of  Neptune,  r8o8. 


keepsie,  $3.50  ;  Hudson,  $5,  and  to  Albany  $7.  All 
other  passengers  besides  those  bound  to  the  regular 
landings  were  charged  $1  for  every  twenty  miles, 
and  the  advertisement  calls  particular  attention  to  the 
factthatnoonewouldbe  taken  on  board  or  put  ashore 
for  less  than  $1,  however  short  the  distance  was. 

Other  steamboats  were  built  and  put  on  the 
route,  and  in  less  than  two  years  from  the  first 
voyage  of  the  Clermont  there  was  a  regular  service 


130 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


between  the  commercial  and  political  capitals  of  the 
Empire  State.  The  Car  of  Neptune,  a  boat  of 
295  tons  measurement,  was  the  immediate  succes- 
sor of  the  Clermont ;  then  came  the  Paragon  in 
i8ri,  and  then  other  steamers,  the  exact  dates  of 
whose  construction  is  unknown.  An  advertise- 
ment in  a  newspaper  of  18 13  informs  the  public 
that  the  Paragon,  Capt.  Niswall,  will  leave  New 


Paragon,  1811. 


York  every  Saturday  evening  at  5  o'clock  for 
Albany,  the  Car  of  Neptune,  Capt.  Roorback,  every 
Thursday  afternoon,  and  the  North  River,  Capt. 
Bartholomew,  every  Tuesday  afternoon  at  the 
same  hour.  Before  181  7  the  time  of  the  passage 
from  New  York  to  Albany  was  reduced  to  eighteen 
hours. 

Compared  with  the  boats  of  the  present  time, 
the  Clermont  and  her  sisters  were  the  crudest  sort 


THE  SUCCESSORS  OE  THE  CLERMONT.  I3I 

of  craft,  with  slender  accommodations  for  passen- 
gers, and  limited  freight  capacity.  No  great  im- 
provement was  made  in  them  until  after  1820,  when 
newer  and  more  commodious  boats  made  their  ap- 
pearance, and  the  original  steamers  were  withdrawn. 
Competition  was  of  benefit  to  the  public,  however 
much  it  might  be  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the 
pioneers  in  steam  navigation,  and  as  soon  as  the 
monopoly  was  broken  there  was  an  abundance  of 


Raritan,  1808. 

capital  ready  for  investment  in  steamboat  enter- 
prises. 

The  first  important  improvement  of  which  any 
record  has  been  preserved  dates  from  1826,  when 
advertisements  in  the  papers  announced  that  the 
new  and  splendid  steamboats  Constellation  and 
Constitution  v/ould  run  daily  between  the  metropo- 
lis and  the  capital  during  the  summer.  The  bills 
assured  the  public  that  these  boats  were  first  class, 
''and  for  any  accommodation,  speed,  quiet  motion 


132 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


of  engines,  and  skilful  management,  were  not  sur- 
passed by  any  boats."  They  reduced  the  time  of 
the  journey  to  about  fifteen  hours,  and  the  competi- 
tion made  a  material  decrease  in  the  fares. 

In  regard  to  the  speed  of  boats,  the  captain  of 
one  of  the  river  steamers  now  running  said  recently  : 
In  1836  the  old  North  American  made  a  trip  in 
ten  hours  twenty  minutes  ;  in  1840  the  Albany  re- 
duced the  time  to  eight  hours  twenty-seven  min- 
utes ;  in  1 84 1  the  South  American  did  it  in  seven 
hours  twenty-eight  minutes  ;  in  1849  Alida, 
since  cut  down  to  a  towboat,  made  a  record  of 
seven  hours  forty-five  minutes  ;  in  1852  the  Francis 
Skiddy,  a  famous  boat  in  her  time,  covered  the 
distance  in  seven  hours  twenty-four  minutes.  But 
it  was  not  until  1862  that  the  figure  seven  was 
knocked  oflf  the  record  by  the  Daniel  Drew,  which 
rang  her  bell  at  each  end  of  the  course  in  nine 
minutes  less  than  seven  hours,  and  in  1864  the 
Chauncey  Vibbard  did  the  same  in  another  nine 
minutes  less.  Since  that  day  the  time  on  the  river 
has  not  improved." 

But  to  return  to  Mr.  Fulton.  There  was  great 
need  of  boats  for  crossing  the  North  and  East 
rivers,  and  his  attention  was  called  to  the  subject. 
In  181 1  and  181 2  he  built  two  ferry-boats  for  cross- 
ing the  Hudson  River  from  New  York  to  the  Jersey 
shore,  and  shortly  after  he  constructed  a  similar 
boat  for  the  East  River.    Mr.  Colden  says  these 


FIRST  FERR  Y-BOA  TS. 


were  what  are  called  twin  boats,  each  of  them  be- 
ing two  complete  hulls,  united  by  a  deck  or  bridge  ; 
they  were  sharp  ?X  both  ends,  and  could  move 


York  (ferry-boat),  iSii. 


equally  well  with  either  end  foremost,  so  that  they 
crossed  and  recrossed  without  turning  about.  He 
contrived  also,  says  Mr.  Golden,  floating  docks  for 


Fire-Fly  (ferry-boat),  18 12. 


the  reception  of  these  boats,  and  a  means  by  which 
they  were  brought  to  them  without  a  shock. 

This  description  will  answer  very  well  for  the 


134 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


ferry-boats  that  connect  New  York  with  neighboring- 
shores  in  this  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  double-ender  steamboat  and  the  pontoon  to 
which  it  is  attached  at  either  end  of  the  route  were 
the  invention  of  the  man  who  built  the  pioneer 
steamboat  for  the  Hudson.  His  name  is  preserved 
in  Fulton  Ferry,  the  principal  of  all  the  ferries  con- 
necting New  York  with  Long  Island,  and  in  the 
streets  running  from  it  on  either  side  of  the  East 
River.  How  many  of  the  thousands  who  daily 
cross  by  Fulton  Ferry  have  ever  known  or  cared  to 
know  whence  its  name  was  derived  ? 

Mr.  Fulton  wrote  and  published  a  description  of 
these  boats  in  the  American  Medical  and  Philosophi- 
cal Register  for  October,  1812.  In  the  course  of 
the  description  he  says  : 

In  a  new  combination  of  this  kind  it  is  not  to 
be  expected  that  every  thing  should  work  to  the 
best  advantage  in  a  first  experiment,  or  that  every 
requisite  should  be  foreseen.  The  boat  which  I 
am  now  constructing  will  have  some  important  im- 
provements, particularly  in  the  power  of  the  engine 
to  overcome  strong  ebb-tides  ;  from  which  again 
other  improvements  will  be  made  as  in  all  new  in- 
ventions. The  present  boat  crosses  the  river, 
which  is  a  mile  and  a  half  broad,  when  it  is  calm,  in 
fifteen  minutes  ;  the  average  time  is  twenty  minutes. 
She  has  had  in  her  at  one  time  eight  four-wheel 
carriages,   twenty-nine  horses,   and   one  hundred 


THE  HORSE-FERRY. 


passengers,  and  could  have  taken  three  hundred 
persons  more." 

Previous  to  the  introduction  of  steam  the  East 
River  was  crossed  by  means  of  row-boats  and  also 
by  ''horse-boats."  The  latter  have  been  thus  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Banvard,  who  was  once  famous  as 
the  exhibitor  of  a  panorama  of  the  Mississippi  : 

'  How  well  I  remember  the  horse-boat  that  paddled 
'Cross  the  East  River  ere  the  advent  of  steam, 
Somethnes  the  old  driver  the  horses  would  straddle, 
And  sometimes  ride  'round  on  the  circling  beam. 

"  The  old  wheel  would  creak  and  the  driver  would  whistle 
To  force  the  blind  horses  to  pull  the  wheel  'round. 
And  their  backs  were  all  scarr'd  and  stuck  out  in  bristles, 
For  the  driver's  fierce  stick  their  old  bones  would  pound 

''  The  man  at  the  gate,  in  fair  weather  or  rainy. 
Stood  out  in  the  storm  by  the  cold  river  side, 
With  pockets  capacious  to  hold  all  the  pennies  ; 
It  took  just  four  coppers  to  cross  o'er  the  tide. 

"  The  pilot,  he,  too,  took  the  wind  and  the  weather. 
Perched  over  the  horses,  his  tiller  in  hand  ; 
Sometimes  would  the  wind  and  the  fierce  tide  together 
Delay  him  in  getting  his  boat  to  the  land. 

"  Though   four-horse  was  the  power  that  ploughed  the  swift 
river, 

Yet  oft  in  his  hurry  has  the  passenger  curs't, 
Though  no  thought  would  come  to  make  a  man  shiver 
About  the  dread  danger  of  boilers  to  burst." 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


In  1 812  Mr.  Fulton  superintended  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Camden,  which  began  running  at  Phila- 
delphia on  the  9th  of  May  of  that  year.     Its  route 


Camden,  18 12. 

was  from  Market  Street  in  that  city  to  Springer  s 
Ferry  at  Camden.     In  1813  he  built  the  steamers 


Richmond,  1813. 

Richmond  and  Washington — the  former  of  370 
and  the  latter  of  275  tons,  and  also  the  Fulton, 
327    tons.       In     the    same    year   the  ferry-boat 


CONTRACT  WITH  THE  GOVERNMENT.  1 37 


Nassau  was  built  under  his  plans  and  direction. 
-In  1 8 14  the  steamboat  Vesuvius,  400  tons  burthen, 


Washington,  1813. 

was  launched  at  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  as  a  regular  trader 
between  the  falls  of  the  Ohio  and  New  Orleans. 
In  December  of  the  same  year  Fulton  made  a  con- 


Nassau,  1813. 

tract  with  the  Government  for  the  employment  of 
his    steamboats  Vesuvius,    P2tna,    New  Orleans, 


138 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Natchez,  and  Puffalo,  as  transports  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  Ohio  rivers,  for  the  conveyance  of 
troops  and  munitions  of  war.  How  many  of  these 
boats  had  been  actually  completed  at  the  time  the 
contract  was  signed,  we  cannot  ascertain  with  exact- 
ness. The  Vesuvius  was  at  New  Orleans  at  the  time 
of  the  famous  battle  of  the  8th  of  January,  i8i5,and 
is  said  to  have  been  of  great  service  to  General  Jack- 
son in  his  arrangements  for  the  defence  of  the  city. 
She  was  impressed  into  the  service  of  the  Govern- 
ment Dec.  30,  1 8 14,  before  the  knowledge  of  Ful- 
ton's contract  was  known  at  New  Orleans,  and  re- 
mained in  government  hands  till  the  12th  of  the 
following  March.  During  a  part  of  this  time  she 
was  aground  on  a  sand  bar,  and  a  claim  was  after- 
wards presented  to  the  Government  on  behalf 
of  her  owners.  The  declaration  of  peace  at  the 
beginning  of  18  15  rendered  the  contract  for  the  use 
of  the  steamboats  abortive,  and  it  was  never  carried 
out. 

The  Vesuvius  was  employed  as  a  trading  boat 
on  the  Mississippi  until  August,  1816,  when  she 
met  the  usual  fate  of  western  steamers.  On  the 
tenth  of  that  month  she  was  burned  near  New  Or- 
leans, and  the  loss  on  boat  and  cargo  was  estimated 
at  $200,000. 

The  prices  for  freight  and  passage  on  the  Missis- 
sippi in  the  early  days  of  steamboating  are  pre- 
served in  the  report  which  accompanied  the  claim 


BOA  TS  VjV  the  MISSISSIPPI, 


of  Fulton's  heirs  for  damages  for  loss  of  services  of 
the  Vesuvius  during  the  time  she  was  in  govern- 
ment employ.  They  were  established  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  State  of  Louisiana  in  181 2,  and  were 
not  reduced  until  18 19. 


Vesuvius,  1 81 3. 


From  New  Orleans  to  Louisville,  four  and  a  half 
cents  per  pound  for  heavy  goods,  and  six  cents 
for  light  ;  averaging  five  cents  per  pound,  or  per 
ton        .........  $112.05 

From  New  Orleans  to  Natchez,  three  fourths  of  a 
cent  per  pound,  or  $1.50  per  barrel  ;  and  the  same 
rates  were  charged  for  all  the  intermediate  land- 
ings— Donaldsonville,  seventy-five  miles.  Baton 
Rouge,  one  hundred  and  twenty,  etc.,  or  per  ton  .  15.00 

From  New  Orleans  to  Louisville,  passage         .        .  125.00 

From  New  Orleans  to  Natchez         ....  30.00 

And  half  price  for  passage  down. 

Witnesses  who  were  examined  in  connection  with 
the  claim  testified  thaL  $600  a  day  would  be  a  mod- 
erate allowance  for  her  services  for  the  period  of  her 


ROBERT  FULTON-, 


impressment.  One  of  them  declared  that  the 
steamer  New  Orleans,  of  very  nearly  the  same  ton- 
nage as  the  Vesuvius,  averaged  $800  a  day  during 
an  absence  of  forty  days  from  New  Orleans  on  a 
trip  to  Louisville. 

The  Chancellor  Livingston,  for  the  navigation 
of  the  Hudson  River,  was  built  upon  the  plans  anc 
specifications  of  Mr.  Fulton,  but  was  not  com- 
pleted until  after  his  death.  The  last  passenger 
boat  planned  by  him  and  built  upon  his  specifica- 
tions was  for  the  navigation  of  Long  Island  Sound 
between  New  York  and  New  Haven.  Mr.  Golden 
said  of  her  in  181  7  : 

She  is  nearly  four  hundred  tons  burthen,  built  with 
uncommon  strength,  and  is  fitted  up  with  convenience  and 
elegance  ;  she  is  tlie  first  steamboat  that  had  a  round 
bottom  like  a  ship.  The  form  w^as  adopted  because,  for 
a  great  part  of  her  route,  she  w^ould  be  as  much  exposed 
as  she  could  be  on  the  ocean.  It  was  therefore  necessary 
to  make  her  a  perfect  sea-boat.  She  passes  daily  and  at 
all  times  of  the  tide,  the  dangerous  strait  of  Hell  Gate, 
where,  for  the  distance  of  nearly  a  mile,  she  often  en- 
counters a  current  running  at  the  rate  of  at  least  six  miles 
an  hour.  For  some  distance  she  has  on  either  side  of  her 
rocks  and  whirlpools  which  rival  Scylla  and  Charybdis, 
even  as  they  are  poetically  described.  This  passage,  pre- 
viously to  its  being  navigated  by  this  vessel,  was  always 
supposed  to  be  impassable  except  at  certain  stages  of  the 
tide,  and  many  a  shipwreck  has  been  occasioned  by  a 
small  mistake  in  the  tide  time.  The  boat  passing  through 
these  whirlpools  with  rapidity,  while  the  angry  waters  are 


PASSENGER  RECEIPTS, 


141 


foaming  around  her  bows,  and  appear  to  raise  themselves 
in  obstinate  resistance  to  her  passage,  is  a  proud  triumph 
of  human  ingenuity.  The  owners,  as  the  highest  tribute 
they  had  in  their  power  to  offer  to  his  genius,  and  as  an 
evidence  of  the  gratitude  they  owed  him,  called  her  the 
Fulton." 


According  to  the  returns  made  to  the  Comptroller 
of  the  State  of  New  York  at  the  end  of  18 18,  the 
tax  on  passengers  for  181  7  and  18 18  amounted  to 


Fulton,  1814. 


$37,620.18,  after  deducting  the  expenses  of  collec- 
tion. The  gross  amount  of  the  steamboat  tax  for 
those  two  years  was  $41,440.  Passengers  under 
thirty  miles  paid  no  tax  ;  over  thirty  and  under  one 
hundred  miles  the  tax  was  fifty  cents,  and  above 
one  hundred  miles  one  dollar.  It  was  estimated 
that  the  receipts  of  the  proprietors  of  steamboats 
from  passengers  alone  amounted  to  seven  times  as 
much  as  the  tax,  or  nearly  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars.     Fares  were  much  higher  than  at  present, 


142 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


and  consequently  the  figures  do  not  represent  as 
many  travellers  as  would  the  same  amount  of  money 
in  more  modern  days. 

Though  successful  with  steamboats  for  peaceful 
purposes,  Fulton  was  not  inactive  respecting  ships 
of  war.  While  he  was  engaged  with  his  various 
enterprises  for  navigating  the  Hudson  and  other 
rivers  of  the  country,  the  war  between  England 


Olive  Branch,  1815. 


and  the  United  States  came  upon  us  and  filled  the 
minds  of  many  citizens  with  alarm.  The  harbor  of 
New  York  was  regarded  liable  to  entrance  by  the 
British  fleet  then  hovering  about  the  coast,  and  in 
the  early  part  of  1814a  public  assembly  was  called 
to  devise  means  for  its  defence. 

The  meeting  appointed  a  committee  to  be  called 
the  Coast  and  Harbor  Defence  Committee  of  New 
York,  and  as  soon  as  it  was  organized  it  sent  for 


PLANS  FOR  A    WAR  STEAMER.  1 43 


Mr.  Fulton  and  asked  what  he  had  to  suggest. 
After  a  brief  delay  he  exhibited  plans  and  specifica- 
tions for  a  ship  of  war  to  be  propelled  by  steam  not 
less  than  four  miles  an  hour,  and  carrying  a  battery  of 
forty-four  guns.  The  committee  approved  the  de- 
sign, and  it  was  also  favored  by  several  distinguished 
officers  of  the  navy.  The  names  of  Commodore 
Decatur,  Captain  Jones,  Captain  Evans,  Captain 


Emperor  of  Russia,  1815, 

Biddle,  Commodore  Perry,  Captain  Warrington, 
and  Captain  Lewis,  were  signed  to  a  document 
approvini^  the  plan,  which  was  immediately  for- 
warded to  the  authorities  at  Washington. 

In  the'r  recommendation  these  naval  officers 
said  such  a  vessel  would  possess  the  following  ad- 
vantages :  In  a  calm  or  li^ht  breeze  she  could 
make  choice  of  position  or  distance.  If  she  could 
move  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour  she  could,  in 


144 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


our  harbors,  bays,  and  rivers,  be  rendered  more 
formidable  than  any  kind  of  engine  hitherto  in- 
vented, and  in  such  case,  she  would  be  equal  to  the 
destruction  of  one  or  more  seventy-fours,  or  of  com- 
pelling them  to  depart  from  our  waters.  In  addi- 
tion to  her  armament,  and  her  furnaces  for  red-hot 
shot,  she  was  to  be  provided  with  submarine  guns 
upon  the  plan  which  Fulton  had  already  elaborated. 
A  memorial  was  sent  to  Congress  by  the  com- 


Original  i'lnn  of  the  Demologos. 

mittee  and  also  a  letter  to  the  St^cretary  of  the 
Navy,  soliciting  his  support  of  the.  measure.  There 
was  a  difficulty  about  the  matter,  as  the  committee 
did  not  desire  to  have  their  operations  made  public 
through  a  debate  in  Congress,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  President  and  Cabinet  could  not  e>pend  the 
public  money  without  congressional  sanction.  To 
get  around  this  dilemma  the  committee  oftered  to 
build  the  vessel  at  its  own  expense  and  risk  provided 
the  Government  would  accept  and  pay  for  her  as 


THE  FIRST  WAR  STEAMER. 


soon  as  her  utility  had  been  shown.  It  was  esti- 
mated that  she  would  cost  about  three  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  the  readiness  of  the 
citizens  to  advance  this  amount  of  money  under  the 
circumstances  shows  what  faith  they  had  in  Fulton's 
ability  to  produce  the  ship  he  promised. 

The  necessary  recommendation  was  made  to 
Congress  and  the  bill  for  the  construction  of  one 
or  more  floating  batteries  was  passed  in  March, 


Launch  of  the  Fulton  the  First,  1814. 


1 8 14.  A  sub-committee  of  five  from  the  Committee 
on  Coast  and  Harbor  Defence  was  appointed  to  take 
charge  of  the  work,  and  Mr.  Fulton  was  named  as 
engineer  and  constructor.  The  committee  con- 
sisted of  General  Dearborn,  Colonel  Henry  Rut- 
gers, Oliver  Wolcott,  Samuel  L.  Mitchell,  and 
Thomas  Morris,  and  on  tue  twentieth  of  the  follow- 
ing June  they  were  present  at  the  laying  of  the 
keel  of  the  first  steam  frigate  that  was  ever  built. 


146 


ROBEI^T  FULTON, 


Originally  she  was  called  the  Demologos  but  was 
subsequently  named  Fulton  the  First. 

On  the  29th  of  October,  little  more  than  four 
months  from  the  date  of  placing  the  first  timber  in 
position,  the  ship  was  launched  from  the  yard  of 
Adam  and  Noah  Brown  on  the  East  River.  There 
was  an  immense  crowd  in  attendance,  many  ships 
of  war  and  merchantmen  were  anchored  in  the  har- 
bor, and  all  the  steamboats  of  which  New  York 
could  then  boast  were  present  with  their  decks  cov- 
ered with  spectators.  The  vessel  slid  easily  into 
the  water,  and  the  launch  was  successfully  accom- 
plished without  accident. 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  work  was  performed 
is  proof  of  the  energy  of  Mr.  Fulton  who  was  at 
the  same  time  superintending  the  manufacture  of 
the  engines  of  the  ship  at  one  of  the  largest 
foundries  in  the  city.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
nothing  of  the  kind  had  ever  been  done  before,  and 
the  inventor  had  much  difficulty  in  making  the 
workmen  understand  his  plans.  Many  times  the 
work  was  done  incorrectly  and  had  to  be  thrown 
away,  and  the  vexation  and  annoyance  were  enough 
to  turn  the  sweetest  temper  to  vinegar.  After  the 
vessel  was  launched  there  were  many  delays  about 
the  machinery,  and  Mr.  Fulton  spent  much  of  his 
time  at  the  foundry  in  superintendence  of  the  work. 

In  January,  181 5,  he  was  called  to  Trenton,  New 
Jersey,  as  a  witness  in  the  case  of  John  R.  Livings- 


THE  FIRST  WAR  STEAMER, 


ton.  The  Legislature  of  that  State  had  passed  a 
law  which  prohibited  any  steamboats  not  belonging 
to  the  licensees  under  the  monopoly  of  John  Fitch 
from  carrying  passengers  to  or  from  any  part 
of  New  Jersey  ;  Fitch's  license  was  granted  in  i  787 
for  thirteen  years  on  certain  conditions.  These 
conditions  had  never  been  met,  and  furthermore 
the  license  had  long  since  terminated  by  limitation, 
but  an  enterprising  speculator  bought  it  for  ten  dol- 
lars, and  persuaded  the  wise  men  of  the  Legislature  to 
revive  it.  John  R.  Livingston  owned  the  steamboat 
which  had  been  running  between  New  York  and 
New  Jersey,  and  it  was  stopped  by  the  passage  of 
the  law.  He  had  petitioned  for  the  repeal  of  the 
unjust  enactment,  and  Mr.  Fulton  was  called  to 
show  the  facts  in  the  case  ;  after  hearing  him  and 
other  witnesses  the  legislators  rescinded  the  op- 
pressive law. 

The  weather  was  very  severe,  and  Mr.  Fulton 
was  much  exposed  and  chilled  through  while  wait- 
ing in  the  hall  of  the  State  capitol.  In  crossing 
the  Hudson  on  his  return  to  New  York  his  boat 
was  caught  in  the  ice  and  detained  several  hours, 
while  a  gale  was  blowing  from  the  north.  The 
chill  caught  at  Trenton  was  increased  by  this  ex- 
posure, and  on  reaching  his  house  Fulton  was  con- 
fined to  his  bed  for  several  days.  He  was  very 
anxious  about  the  progress  on  the  steam  frigate, 
and  before  able  safely  to  do  so  he  went  again  to 


148 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


the  foundry  and  to  the  docks  where  the  ship  was 
lying.  Additional  exposure  sent  him  to  his  bed 
again,  from  which  he  never  rose.  He  died  on  the 
24th  of  February,  181 5,  in  the  fiftieth  year  of  his 
life. 

Work  on  the  war  steamer  was  delayed  but  not 
stopped  by  Mr.  Fulton's  death.  The  war  was 
over,  and  the  immediate  necessity  for  the  ship  had 
disappeared,  so  that  she  was  not  hurried  to  com- 
pletion. There  was  some  difficulty  in  raising  the 
necessary  funds  for  the  work,  as  the  citizens  who 
were  zealous  for  the  ship  while  the  war  lasted  had 
become  indifferent  after  the  restoration  of  peace. 
The  contractors  were  required  to  wait  some  time 
for  their  pay,  and  the  wages  of  the  workmen  fell  in 
arrears.  Once  the  men  refused  to  work  longei 
unless  they  received  what  was  due  them.  In  the 
language  of  modern  days,  they  struck,"  and  the 
committee  was  obliged  to  advance  the  mone) 
needed  for  the  wages  account. 

Cannon  for  the  armament  were  not  on  hand  in 
New  York,  or  rather  could  not  be  spared  from  the 
ships  and  forts  defending  the  harbor,  and  it  was 
decided  to  use  British  cannon  from  a  prize  that  had 
been  taken  into  Philadelphia.  To  avoid  the  risk 
of  recapture  by  the  British  cruisers  along  the  coast, 
the  cannon  were  brought  overland  from  Philadel 
phia  to  New  York  at  a  time  when  the  roads  ot 
New  Jersey  were  especially  difficult  on  account  of 


The  **  Fulton  the  First"  (from  drawings  by  Mr.  Fulton). 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


the  mud.  Altogether,  the  first  war  steamer  of  the 
world  was  constructed  under  adverse  circumstances. 

During  the  month  of  May  her  engines  were 
placed  on  board,  and  on  the  first  day  of  June,  1815, 
she  made  a  short  trial  trip  in  the  harbor.  She 
fully  met  the  expectations  of  her  builders,  as  she 
went  directly  in  face  of  wind  and  tide,  crossed  the 
currents  and  eddies  without  diflficulty,  and  was 
easily  steered  among  vessels  at  anchor  in  spite  of 
the  high  wind  and  rough  waves  that  prevailed  on 
that  day.  Several  defects  in  her  construction  and 
in  the  arrangement  and  working  of  the  machinery 
were  discovered,  and  the  commissioners  immedi- 
ately set  about  their  correction. 

Of  her  subsequent  performances  and  her  descrip- 
tion, we  have  the  following  narrative  by  Mr.  Col- 
den  in  his  memoir  of  Fulton  : 

On  the  fourth  of  July,  in  the  same  year,  the  steam 
frigate  made  a  passage  to  the  ocean  and  back,  and  went 
the  distance,  which,  going  and  returning,  is  fifty-three 
miles,  in  eight  hours  and  twenty  minutes,  by  the  mere 
force  of  her  engine.  These  trials  suggested  the  correc- 
tion of  some  errors,  and  the  supplying  of  some  defects  in 
the  machinery.  In  September,  she  made  another  passage 
to  the  sea,  and  having  at  this  time  the  weight  of  her  whole 
armament  on  board,  she  went  at  an  average  of  five  and  a 
half  miles  an  hour,  with  and  against  the  tide.  When 
stemming  the  tide,  which  ran  at  the  rate  of  three  miles  an 
hour,  she  advanced  at  the  rate  of  two  and  a  half  miles  an 
hour. 


THE  FIRST  WAR  STEAMER, 


This  performance  was  not  more  than  equal  to  Mr. 
Fulton's  expectations ;  but  it  exceeded  what  he  had  prom- 
ised the  Government,  which  was,  that  she  should  be 
propelled  by  steam,  at  the  rate  of  from  three  to  four 
miles  an  hour. 

The  substance  of  the  following  description  of  the 
*  Fulton  the  First,'  the  honored  name  this  vessel  bears,  is 
extracted  from  the  report  of  the  gentlemen  who  were  the 
commissioners  for  building  her. 

She  is  a  structure  resting  on  two  boats  and  keels, 
separated  from  end  to  end  by  a  channel  fifteen  feet  wide, 
and  sixty-six  feet  long  ;  one  boat  contains  the  caldrons  of 
copper  to  prepare  her  steam.  The  cylinder  of  iron,  its 
piston,  levers,  and  wheels  occupy  part  of  the  other.  The 
water-wheel  revolves  in  the  space  between  them.  The 
main  or  gun  deck  supports  the  armament,  and  is  pro- 
tected by  a  parapet,  four  feet  ten  inches  thick,  of  solid 
timber,  pierced  by  embrasures.  Through  thirty  port-holes, 
as  many  thirty-two  pounders  are  intended  to  fire  red-hot 
shot,  which  can  be  heated  with  great  safety  and  con- 
venience. Her  upper  or  spar-deck,  upon  which  several 
thousand  men  m^ht  parade,  is  encompassed  with  a  bul- 
wark, which  affords  safe  quarters  ;  she  is  rigged  with  two 
stout  masts,  each  of  which  supports  a  large  latteen  yard 
and  sails  ;  she  has  two  bow-sprits  and  jibs,  and  four  rud- 
ders, one  at  each  extremity  of  each  boat  ;  so  that  she  can 
be  steered  from  either  end  foremost ;  her  rnachinery  is 
calculated  for  the  addition  of  an  engine,  which  will  dis- 
charge an  immense  column  of  water,  which  it  is  intended 
to  throw  upon  the  deck,  and  through  tlie  port-holes  of  an 
enemy,  and  thereby  deluge  her  armament  and  ammuni- 
tion. If,  in  addition  to  all  this,  we  suppose  her  to  be 
finished,  according  to  Mr.  Fulton's  intention,  with  hundred- 
pound  columbiads,  two  suspended  from  eacli  bow,  so  as 


152 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


to  discharge  a  ball  of  that  size  into  an  enemy's  ship  at  ten 
or  twelve  feet  below  her  water-line  ;  it  must  be  allowed 
that  she  has  the  appearance  at  least  of  being  the  most 
formidable  engine  for  warfare  that  human  ingenuity  has 
contrived. 

The  English  were  not  uninformed  as  to  these  prepara- 
tions which  were  making  for  them,  nor  inattentive  to  their 
progress.  It  is  certain  that  the  steam  frigate  lost  none  of 
her  terrors  in  the  reports,  or  imaginations  of  the  enemy. 
In  a  treatise  on  steam  vessels,  published  in  Scotland,  the 
author  says  he  has  taken  great  care  to  procure  full  and 
accurate  information  about  a  steam  frigate  said  to  have 
been  launched  in  New  York,  which  he  describes  in  the 
following  words :  '  Length  on  deck,  three  hundred  feet ; 
breadth,  two  hundred  feet ;  thickness  of  her  sides,  thirteen 
feet,  of  alternate  oak  plank  and  cork-wood;  carries  forty- 
four  guns,  four  of  which  are  hundred  pounders;  quarter- 
deck  and  forecastle  guns,  forty-four  pounders  ;  and  further, 
to  annoy  an  enemy  attempting  to  board,  can  discharge 
one  hundred  gallons  of  boiling  water  in  a  minute,  and  by 
mechanism,  brandishes  three  hundred  cutlasses  with  the 
utmost  regularity  over  her  gunwales  ;  works  also  an  equal 
number  of  heavy  iron  spikes  of  great  length,  darting  them 
from  her  sides,  with  prodigious  force,  and  withdrawing 
them  every  quarter  of  a  minute.'  " 

The  v^ar  was  over  before  the  "  Fulton  the  First " 
vv^as  ready  for  battle,  or  in  a  condition  to  be  made 
ready  in  a  short  time,  and  there  w^as  no  opportunity 
of  testing  her  qualities.  She  was  taken  to  the 
Navy  Yard  at  Brooklyn,  where  she  was  moored 
near  the  shore,  and  for  more  than  ten  years  was 
used  as  a  receiving  ship.     On  the  fourth  day  of 


THE  FIRST  WAR  STEAMER. 


June,  1829,  she  was  blown  up  by  the  explo^^ion  of 
two  and  a  half  barrels  of  gunpowder  in  her  maga- 
zine. Her  timbers  were  a  good  deal  rotted,  and 
she  went  to  pieces  so  badly  after  the  explosion  that 
all  thought  of  repairing  her  was  out  of  the  question. 

Whether  the  accident  was  intended  or  accidental 
has  never  been  clearly  ascertained.  Twenty-four 
men  and  one  woman  were  killed,  and  five  others 
were  missing  and  supposed  to  have  been  killed. 
Nineteen  men  were  wounded,  most  of  them  severe- 
ly, and  from  the  numbers  on  board  at  the  time,  it 
was  a  wonder  that  the  casualties  were  so  few. 
Commodore  Chauncy,  in  reporting  the  loss  to  the 
Government,  said:  ''The  explosion  could  not  have 
taken  place  by  accident,  as  the  magazine  was  as 
well  or  better  secured  than  the  magazines  of  other 
ships  "  ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  cannot  assign  a 
motive  to  those  in  the  magazine  for  so  horrible  an 
act  as  to  voluntarily  destroy  themselves  and  those 
on  board.'' 

Another  officer  who  was  attached  to  the  Fulton 
at  the  time  of  her  destruction  wrote  long  afterwards 
that  her  magazine,  if  it  could  be  called  one,  was 
nearly  under  the  ship's  coppers,  and  close  to  the 
bag-room,"  where  the  sergeant  of  marines  had  a 
writing-desk,  which  was  lighted  by  a  naked  oil- 
lamp.  ''Soon  after  joining  the  ship,"  he  says,  "  I 
had  occasion  to  go  clown  there  ;  the  bulkhead  had 
a  sliding-door,  which  was  open,  and  the  sergeant's 


154 


J^OBERT  FULTON, 


lamp  shone  on  the  kegs  of  powder,  one  of  which 
was  without  a  head.  I  remarked  to  the  sergeant : 
'  if  your  Hght  was  only  five  feet  nearer  (all  the 
space  that  separated  it  from  the  powder)  there 
would  be  trouble/  '  Yis/  said  he,  turning  his 
beery  eyes  on  me,  'there  would  be  a  sensation/ 
After  that  I  never  turned  in  at  night  without  think- 
ing there  might  be  a  sensation  before  morning,  and 
to  this  day  I  have  not  forgotten  the  appearance  of 
that  powder,  with  the  light  shining  on  it,  and  draw 
the  inference  that  gross  carelessness  caused  the  sen- 
sation. There  was  a  story  at  that  time  that  a  gunner  s 
mate  had  been  disrated  and  punished  with  the  cats 
the  morning  before  the  blowing  up  of  the  Fulton." 

Five  years  after  the  launch  and  trial  of  the  Ful- 
ton the  First "  at  New  York,  the  English  Govern- 
ment decided  to  build  three  steam  gunboats,  the 
first  steam  vessels  that  ever  appeared  in  the  British 
navy.  They  were  the  ''Comet,"  ''Lightning,"  and 
"  Meteor,"  the  "  Comet "  being  the  first  to  take  the 
water  and  fly  the  naval  ensign. 

The  three  surveyors  then  in  the  admiralty  refused 
to  take  the  res^ponsibility  of  constructing  steam- 
vessels  for  sea  service,  and  the  work  was  performed 
by  Oliver  Lang,  who  was  then  an  assistant  sur- 
veyor of  the  navy.  They  were  paddle  steamers, 
115  to  126  feet  long,  from  80  to  lOO  horse-power, 
and  each  carried  three  guns.  The  keels  were  laid  in 
1820,  and  the  boats  were  not  ready  for  sea  until  1823. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Fulton's  plan  for  a  submarine  boat — Description  of  "The  Mute" — Fulton's 
last  illness  ;  his  death  and  funeral — Fulton's  family  and  estate — The  in- 
gratitude of  republics — Tardy  and  niggardly  action  of  Congress — Ful- 
ton and  the  "  perpetual-motion  "  machine — Fulton's  personal  appearance 
and  peculiarities — His  grave  in  Trinity  churchyard. 

STILL  another  vessel  for  purposes  of  war  was  in 
_  the  mind  of  Fulton  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
and  actually  under  construction.  It  was  a  modifica- 
tion of  his  submarine  boat,  the  Nautilus,  and  had  a 
system  of  air-chambers  by  which  it  could  be  floated 
at  varying  depths  at  the  pleasure  of  its  commander, 
but  was  never  to  be  entirely  submerged.  Fulton 
sent  a  model  of  this  ship  to  the  Government,  which 
was  approved,  and  the  President  authorized  him  to 
proceed  with  the  construction.  Fulton  died  before 
the  hull  of  the  craft  was  completed,  and,  as  the 
workmen  were  unable  to  go  on  without  him,  opera- 
tions upon  it  were  suspended  and  never  resumed. 
This  novel  war-ship  is  thus  described  : 

Her  sides  were  to  be  of  the  ordinary  thickness,  but 
her  deck  was  to  be  stout,  and  plated  with  iron,  so  as  to 
render  it  ball-proof,  which  would  not  require  so  much 
strength  as  might  be  at  first  imagined  ;  because,  as  no 
shot  could  strike  it  from  a  vessel  but  at  a  very  great 


156 


ROBERT  FULTOKT, 


angle,  the  ball  would  ricochet  on  a  slight  resistance  fronn  a 
hard  substance.  She  was  to  be  capable  of  sheltering  a 
hundred  men  under  her  deck,  and  was  to  be  moved  by  a 
wheel  placed  in  another  air-chamber  near  the  stern,  so 
that,  when  the  vessel  was  to  be  propelled,  only  a  part  of 
the  under  paddles  should  be  in  water,  at  least  the  upper 
half  of  the  wheel  or  more  moving  in  air.  The  wheel  was 
to  be  turned  by  a  crank  attached  to  a  shaft  that  should 
penetrate  the  stern  to  the  air-chamber  through  a  stuffing- 
box  and  run  along  the  middle  of  the  boat  until  it  ap- 


proached her  bows.  Through  this  shaft  rungs  were  to  be 
passed,  of  which  t-he  crew  were  to  take  hold  as  they  were 
seated  on  each  side  of  it  on  benches.  By  merely  pushing 
the  shaft  backward  and  forward  the  water-wheel  would  be 
turned  and  the  boat  be  propelled  with  a  velocity  equal  to 
the  force  of  a  hundred  men.  By  means  of  the  air-chamber 
she  was  to  be  kept,  when  not  in  hostile  action,  upon  the 
surface,  as  common  boats  are.  But  when  in  reach  of  an 
enemy  she  was  to  sink  so  that  nothing  but  her  deck  would 
be  exposed  to  his  view  or  to  his  fire.  Her  motion  when 
in  this  situation  would  be  perfectly  silent,  and  therefore 
he  called  this  contrivance    The  Mute.''    His  design  was 


Fulton's  Nautilus. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  MUTE, 


that  she  should  approach  an  enemy,  which  he  supposed 
she  might  do  in  fogs  or  in  the  night,  without  being  heard 
or  discovered,  and  do  execution  by  means  of  torpedoes  or 
submarine  guns." 

The  Mute  was  provided  with  mast  and  sails  ;  the 
sails  could  be  lowered  and  the  mast  struck  when- 
ever it  was  necessary  to  bring  them  down,  but  in 
ordinary  times  she  would  present  the  appearance 


The  Mute. 


of  a  common  sailing  craft  and  be  moved  in  the 
same  way.  Several  inventors  of  laten  lays  have 
devised  boats  not  much  unlike  the  M  !  ^ce,  and  some 
of  them  have  done  effective  work. 

Fulton's  illness  was  not  considered  dangerous 
until  a  very  short  time  before  his  death,  and  con- 
sequently the  news  of  that  event  came  like  a  shock 
to  the  public.  The  newspapers  that  announced  it 
were  dressed  in  mourning,  the  corporation  of  the 

*  See  illustration  of  "  The  Mute"  in  Chapter  III. 


158 


ROBEl^T  FULTON, 


city  and  several  literary  and  scientific  societies  held 
special  meetings  and  passed  resolutions  eulogistic 
of  Mr.  Fulton  and  expressing  their  deep  grief  at 
his  demise.  Some  of  the' societies  appointed  dele- 
gations to  be  present  at  the  funeral,  while  others 
voted  to  attend  in  a  body.  The  Legislature  was 
then  in  session  at  Albany,  and  as  soon  as  the  sad 
news  was  received  appropriate  resolutions  were 
passed,  and  it  was  voted  that  the  members  should 
wear  mourning  badges  for  a  designated  time. 

Mr.  Fulton's  last  residence  was  at  No.  i  State 
Street,  and  the  funeral  cortege  from  the  house  to 
Trinity  Church  was  one  of  the  most  imposing  that 
had  ever  been  seen  in  New  York  up  to  that  date. 
The  funeral  was  attended  by  all  the  officers  of  the 
State  and  National  Governments  then  in  the  city, 
by  the  mayor  and  common  council,  by  the  societies 
already  mentioned,  and  by  many  prominent  citizens 
who  came  to  testify  their  appreciation  of  the  man 
and  the  inventor. 

While  ^'ic?e  procession  was  moving  from  State 
Street  to  Ti^vnity  Church  minute  guns  were  fired 
from  the  Battery  and  the  flags  on  ships  in  the  har- 
bor were  at  half-mast.  The  body  was  placed  in  a 
vault  belonging  to  the  Livingston  family.  The  re- 
mains were  enclosed  in  a  leaden  coffin  covered  with 
one  of  mahogany,  and  when  the  vault  was  last 
opened  a  few  years  ago  the  casket  was  found  in  a 
good  state  of  preservation. 


FULTON'S  DEATH  AND  FUNERAL, 


159 


Fulton  left  a  widow  and  three  children,  one  son 
and  two  daughters  ;  he  had  been  married  but  nine 
years,  and  his  widow  died  a  few  years  after  the  loss 
of  her  husband.  The  son,  Robert  Barlow  Fulton, 
died  in  1841  ;  the  daughters  were  married,  one  in 
Philadelphia  and  the  others  in  New  York,  and  lived 
to  or  beyond  middle  life.  Mr.  Fulton's  will  was 
made  about  two  months  before  his  death  ;  it  left 
nine  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  his  wife  during  her 
lifetime,  and  made  suitable  provision  for  the  edu- 
cation and  maintenance  of  his  children  out  of  the 
residue  of  his  estate.  There  were  bequests  to  his 
brother  and  sisters  and  to  their  children.  In  the 
event  of  the  death  of  all  his  children  before  the 
death  of  his  wife  and  without  issue  he  devised  half 
of  his  property  not  otherwise  disposed  of  for  the 
promotion  of  an  academy  of  fine  arts,  for  histori- 
cal and  scientific  paintings,  which  academy  shall  be 
established  at  the  seat  of  government  of  the 
United  States." 

As  before  stated  he  had  spent  about  five  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  publication  of  Joel  Barlow's 

Columbiad  "  ;  this  expenditure  gave  him  a  prop- 
erty interest  in  the  work,  which  he  relinquished  to 
Mr.  Barlow's  widow,  with  the  exception  of  fifty 
copies  of  the  book.  He  also  willed  that  the  money 
then  due  him  from  the  estate  of  Joel  Barlov/ — 
about  seven  thousand  dollars — was  not  to  be  de- 
manded from   Mrs.  Barlow  in  her  lifetime,  but 


i6o 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


should  be  the  legal  claim  of  his  estate  after  that 
lady's  death.  / 


The  will  was  proved  and  entered  upon  the 
records  of  the  surrogate's  office  February  27th, 
181 5.  The  terms  of  the  will  show  that  Fulton  ex- 
pected his  estate  to  be  of  considerable  value,  as 
he  devises  that  the  sums  mentioned  therein  shall 
be  paid  out  of  the  profits  arising  from  my  steam- 
boats, and  in  case  of  that  not  proving  sufficient, 
then  out  of  any  other  property  or  profits  arising 
from  my  real  or  personal."  Like  most  inventors 
Fulton  was  sanguine  as  to  the  success  of  his  inven- 
tions and  the  large  amounts  of  money  that  would 
be  received  from  them. 

Though  theoretically  possessing  a  fortune,  Ful- 
ton really  died  penniless  in  consequence  of  the 
numerous  lawsuits  with  which  he  was  harassed, 
and  the  opposition  that  had  followed  the  successful 
establishment  of  the  Clermont  and  her  sister  boats 
on  the  Hudson.  Envy  and  greed  robbed  him  of 
what  was  his  proper  due,  and  he  never  received  a 
cent  for  his  patents.  Neither  Fulton  nor  Living- 
ston, the  pioneers  of  steam  navigation,  ever  real- 
ized from  their  work  as  much  as  they  invested 
in  it,  and  the  inventor  left  an  estate  burdened 
with  debt.  Fulton  was  in  the  service  of  the 
United  States  at  the  time  of  his  death,  as  he  was 
supervising  the  construction  of  the  steam  frigate, 
and  the  government  was  indebted  to  him  upwards 


TARDY  ACTION  OF  CONGRESS, 


i6i 


of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  money  ex- 
pended on  its  account  in  accordance  with  his  con- 
tracts, and  his  claim  for  the  services  of  the  Vesu- 
vius at  New  Orleans. 

Twenty  years  after  his  death  a  bill  for  the  relief 
of  his  heirs  was  introduced  in  Congress,  but  it  did 
not  become  a  law  until  1846,  when  Fulton  had  been 
thirty-one  years  in  his  grave.  No  allowance  was 
made  for  interest,  and  the  amount  was  reduced  to 
$76,300  before  the  passage  of  the  bill.  That  re- 
publics are  ungrateful  is  well  shown  by  the  history 
of  Fulton's  claim  for  compensation.  The  steam- 
boat has  been  one  of  the  most  important  agencies 
in  the  development  and  growth  of  the  country,  sec- 
ond only  to  the  railway,  and  by  many  claimed  to 
be  its  superior,  but  the  Government  refused  to  pay 
the  just  claims  of  Fulton  for  money  expended,  and 
granted  no  recognition  whatever  for  the  great  ser- 
vices he  performed  in  the  interest  of  commerce  and 
civilization. 

Mr.  Colden  tells  the  following  story  to  illustrate 
Fulton's  quickness  in  grasping  ideas  relating  to  ma- 
chinery : 

It  is  well  known  how  long  and  how  successfully  Red- 
heffer  had  deluded  the  Pennsylvanians  by  his  perpetual 
motion.^ 

Many  men  of  ingenuity,  learning,  and  science  had  seen 
the  machine.  Some  had  written  on  the  subject — not  a 
few  of  these  were  his  zealous  advocates, — and  others, 
though  they  were  afraid  to  admit  that  he  had  made  a 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


discovery  which  violated  what  were  believed  to  be  the 
established  laws  of  nature,  appeared  also  afraid  to  deny 
what  the  incessant  motion  of  his  wheels  and  weights 
seemed  to  prove.  These  contrived  ingenious  theories 
which  were  hardly  less  wonderful  than  the  perpetual  mo- 
tion itself.  They  proposed  that  Redheffer  had  discovered 
a  means  of  developing  gradually  some  hidden  power,  which, 
though  it  could  not  give  motion  to  his  machine  forever, 
would  keep  it  going  for  some  time,  which  they  could  not 
pretend  to  determine. 

"  One  of  these  perpetual  motions  commenced  its  career 
in  New  York  City  in  1813.  Mr.  F'ulton  was  a  perfect  un- 
believer in  Redheffer's  discovery,  and,  although  hundreds 
were  daily  paying  their  dollar  to  see  the  wonder,  Mr.  Ful- 
ton could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  follow  the  crowd.  Af- 
ter a  few  days,  however,  he  was  induced  by  some  of  his 
friends  to  visit  the  machine.  It  was  in  an  isolated  house 
in  the  suburbs  of  the  city. 

In  a  very  short  time  after  Mr.  Fulton  had  entered  the 
room  in  which  it  was  exhibited,  he  exclaimed  :  '  Why,  this 
is  a  crank  motion.*  His  ear  enabled  him  to  distinguish 
that  the  machine  was  moved  by  a  crank,  which  always 
gives  an  unequal  power,  and,  therefore,  an  unequal  ve- 
locity in  the  course  of  each  revolution,  and  a  nice  and 
practised  ear  may  perceive  that  the  sound  is  not  uniform. 
If  the  machine  had  been  kept  in  motion  by  what  was  its 
ostensible  moving  power,  it  must  have  had  an  equable 
rotary  motion,  and  the  sound  would  have  been  always 
the  same. 

After  some  little  conversation  with  the  showman,  Mr. 
Fulton  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  the  machine  was 
an  imposition,  and  to  tell  the  gentleman  that  he  was  an 
impostor. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  bluster  and  anger  which  these 


THE  PERPETUAL-MOTION  MACHINE, 


163 


charges  excited,  he  assured  the  company  that  the  thing 
was  a  cheat,  and  that,  if  they  would  support  him  in  the 
attempt,  he  would  detect  it  at  the  risk  of  paying  any  pen- 
alty if  he  failed. 

Having  obtained  the  assent  of  all  who  were  present, 
he  began  by  knocking  away  some  very  thin  little  pieces 
of  lath,  which  appeared  to  be  no  part  of  the  machinery, 
but  to  go  from  the  frame  of  the  machine  to  the  wall  of 
the  room,  merely  to  keep  the  corner-posts  of  the  machine 
steady. 

It  was  found  that  a  catgut  string  was  led  through  one 
of  these  laths  and  the  frame  of  the  machine  to  the  head 
of  the  upright  shaft  of  the  principal  wheel;  that  the  cat- 
gut was  conducted  through  the  wall  and  along  the  floors 
of  the  second  story  to  a  back  cockloft  at  the  distance  of  a 
number  of  yards  from  the  room  which  contained  the  ma- 
chine, and  there  was  found  the  moving  power.  This  was 
a  poor  old  man  with  an  immense  beard,  and  all  the  ap- 
pearance of  having  suffered  a  long  imprisonment ;  who, 
when  they  broke  in  upon  him,  was  unconscious  of  what 
had  happened  below,  and  who,  while  he  was  seated  on 
a  stool  gnawing  a  crust,  was  with  one  hand  turning  a 
crank. 

The  proprietor  of  the  perpetual  motion  soon  disap- 
peared. The  mob  demolished  his  machine — the  destruc- 
tion of  which  immediately  put  a  stop  to  that  which  had 
been,  for  so  long  a  time  and  to  so  much  profit,  exhibited 
in  Philadelphia." 

Fulton  was  of  slender  but  well-proportioned 
figure,  and  about  six  feet  high,  he  had  strong 
features,  an  abundance  of  dark,  curly  hair,  and  his 
forehead  was  high  and  projecting.     His  eyes  were 


164 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


large  and  dark,  and  are  said  to  have  been  expres- 
sive to  an  unusual  degree.  His  personal  character- 
istics are  thus  given  by  his  friend  Golden  : 

Nature  had  made  him  a  gentleman  and  bestowed  upon 
him  ease  and  gracefuhiess.  He  had  too  much  good  sense 
for  the  least  affectation,  and  a  modest  confidence  in  his 
own  worth  and  talents  gave  him  an  unembarrassed  de- 
portment in  all  companies.  His  temper  was  mild  and  his 
disposition  lively  ;  he  was  fond  of  society,  which  he  always 
enlivened  by  cheerful,  cordial  manners  and  instructed  or 
pleased  by  his  sensible  conversation.  He  expressed  him- 
self with  energy,  fluency,  and  correctness,  and  as  he  owed 
more  to  his  own  experience  and  reflections  than  to  books, 
his  sentiments  were  often  interesting  from  their  origi- 
nality. 

In  all  his  domestic  and  social  relations  he  was  zealous, 
kind,  generous,  liberal,  and  affectionate.  He  knew  of  no 
use  for  money  but  as  it  was  subservient  to  charity,  hospi- 
tality, and  the  sciences.  But  what  was  most  conspicuous 
in  his  character  was  his  calm  constancy,  his  industry,  and 
that  indefatigable  patience  and  perseverance  which  always 
enabled  him  to  overcome  difficulties. 

He  was  decidedly  a  Republican.  The  determination 
which  he  often  avowed,  that  he  would  never  accept  an 
office,  is  an  evidence  of  the  disinterestedness  of  his  poli- 
tics, but  his  zeal  for  his  opinions  or  party  did  not  extin- 
guish his  kindness  for  the  merits  of  his  opponents. 
Society,''  says  Mr.  Golden  in  conclusion,  will  long  re- 
member and  regret  him,  but  he  will  be  most  lamented  by 
those  by  whom  he  was  best  known." 

To  show  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  publicly 


EULOGIUM  BY  DEWITT  CLINTON. 


165 


held,  the  following  words  of  two  distinguished  citi- 
zens of  New  York  are  herewith  presented  : 

Extract  from  a  discourse  delivered  before  the 
American  Academy  of  the  Arts,  by  his  Excellency, 
DeWitt  Clinton,  Governor  of  New  York. 

7f  -X-  4f  ^  -K-  *  * 

Fortunately  for  the  interests  of  mankind,  Mr.  Living- 
ston became  acquainted  with  ROBERT  FULTON,  a 
self-created  man,  who  has  risen  into  distinguished  useful- 
ness and  into  exalted  eminence  by  the  energies  of  his  own 
genius  unsupported  by  extrinsic  advantages. 

Mr.  Fulton  had  directed  the  whole  force  of  his  mind 
to  mathematical  learning  and  mechanical  philosophy. 
Plans  of  defence  against  maritime  invasion  and  of  sub- 
aquatic  navigation  had  occupied  his  reflections.  During 
the  late  war  he  was  the  Archimedes  of  his  country. 

'^The  poet  was  considered  under  the  influence  of  a  dis- 
ordered imagination  when  he  exclaimed  : 

*  Soon  shall  thy  arm,  unconquer'd  steam,  afar 
Drag  the  slow  barge,  or  drive  the  rapid  car  ; 
Or  on  wide-waving  wings  expanded  bear 
The  flying  chariot  through  the  fields  of  air  !  ' 

The  connection  between  Livingston  and  Fulton  real- 
ized to  a  great  degree  the  vision  of  the  poet.  All  former 
experiments  had  failed,  and  the  genius  of  Fulton,  aided 
and  fostered  by  public  spirit  and  discernment  of  Living- 
ston, created  one  of  the  greatest  accommodations  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind.  These  illustrious  men  will  be  con- 
sidered through  all  time  as  the  benefactors  of  the  world ; 
they  will  be  emphatically  hailed  as  the  Castor  and  Pollux 
of  antiquity — lucida  sidera — stars  of  excellent  light  and 
the  most  benign  influence. 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Mr.  Fulton  was  personally  well  known  to  most  who 
hear  me.  To  those  who  were  favored  with  the  high  com- 
munion of  his  superior  mind,  I  need  not  expatiate  on  the 
wonderful  vivacity,  activity,  comprehension,  and  clearness 
of  his  intellectual  faculties;  and  while  he  was  meditating 
plans  of  mighty  import  for  his  future  fame  and  his  coun- 
try's good,  he  was  cut  down  in  the  prime  of  his  life,  and 
in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness.  Like  the  self-burning  tree 
of  Gambia,  he  was  destroyed  by  the  fire  of  his  own 
genius,  and  the  never-ceasing  activity  of  a  vigorous 
mind." 

Extract  from  a  discourse  delivered  before  the 
New  York  Historical  Society,  in  September,  1816, 
by  the  Hon.  Gouverneur  Morris. 

^         ^         ^         ^         ^         ^  ^ 

If  the  learned  leisure  of  European  wealth  can  gain 
applause  or  emolument  for  meting  out,  by  syllables  re- 
luctantly drawn  together,  unharmonious  hexameters,  far 
be  it  from  us  to  rival  the  manufacture.  Be  it  ours  to 
boast  that  the  first  vessel  successfully  propelled  by  steam 
was  launched  on  the  bosom  of  Hudson's  River.  It  was 
here  that  American  genius,  seizing  the  arm  of  European 
science,  bent  to  the  purpose  of  our  favorite  parent  art  the 
wildest  and  most  devouring  element. 

The  patron,  the  inventor,  are  no  more.  But  the 
names  of  Livingston  and  of  Fulton,  dear  to  fame,  shall 
be  engraven  ON  A  MONUMENT  SACRED  TO  THE  BENE- 
FACTORS OF  MANKIND.  There  generations  yet  unborn 
shall  read : 

"  *  Godfrey  taught  seamen  to  interrogate 

With  steady  gaze,  though  tempest-tossed,  the  sun, 
And  from  his  beam  true  oracle  obtain. 
Franklin  dread  thunderbolts,  with  daring  hand, 


FULTON'S  GRA  VE, 


Seized  and  averted  their  destructive  stroke, 

From  the  protected  dwellings  of  mankind. 

FULTON  by  flame  compelled  the  angry  sea, 

To  vapor  rarefied,  his  bark  to  drive, 

IN  TRIUMPH  proud,  thro'  the  loud-sounding  surge/ 

^^This  invention  is  spreading  fast  in  the  civilized  world; 
and  though  excluded  as  yet  from  Russia,  will,  erelong, 
be  extended  to  that  vast  empire.  A  bird  hatched  on  the 
Hudson  will  soon  people  the  floods  of  the  Volga,  and 
cygnets  descended  from  an  American  swan  glide  along  the 
surface  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  Then  the  hoary  genius  of 
Asia,  high-throned  on  the  peaks  of  Caucasus,  his  moist 
eye  glistening  while  it  glances  over  the  ruins  of  Baby- 
lon, Persepolis,  Jerusalem,  and  Palmyra,  shall  bow  with 
grateful  reverence  to  the  inventive  spirit  of  this  Western 
world. 

''Hail,  Columbia!  child  of  science,  parent  of  useful 
arts — dear  country,  hail !  Be  it  thine  to  meliorate  the 
condition  of  man.  Too  many  thrones  have  been  reared 
by  arms,  cemented  by  blood,  and  reduced  again  to  dust 
by  the  sanguinary  conflict  of  arms.  Let  mankind  enjoy 
at  last  the  consolatory  spectacle  of  thy  throne,  built  by 
industry  on  the  basis  of  peace,  and  sheltered  under  the 
wings  of  justice.  May  it  be  secured  by  a  pious  obedience 
to  that  Divine  Will  which  prescribes  the  moral  orbit  of  em- 
pire with  the  same  precision  that  his  wisdom  and  power 
have  displayed  in  whirling  millions  of  planets  round  mil- 
lions of  suns  through  the  vastness  of  infinite  space." 

While  preparing  this  volume  the  author  visited 
Trinity  churchyard,  in  order  to  see  the  grave  of 
Robert  Fulton.  Without  making  known  his  pur- 
pose he  asked  for  the  Livingston  vault,  and  was  di- 
rected to  a  plain  slab  of  brown  sandstone,  about 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


two  feet  by  three,  set  on  a  level  with  the  grass 
around  it,  near  the  rear  of  the  church.  On  the  sur- 
face of  the  slab  is  inscribed  the  following  : 

''The  vault  of  Walter  and  Robert  C.  Living- 
ston, sons  of  Robert  Livingston,  of  the  manor  of 
Livingston." 

''This  is  the  Livingston  vault,"  said  the  attend- 
ant. "  Robert  Fulton  is  buried  there  too  ;  he  was 
a  great  friend  of  the  Livingstons,  and  was  married 
in  the  family,  and  he  made  the  first  steamboat  on 
the  North  River." 

Fulton's  name  is  not  upon  the  slab,  nor  is  there 
any  monument  near  the  spot  to  show  that  his  re- 
mains are  here.  The  stranger  in  search  of  Fulton's 
grave,  and  unacquainted  with  the  circumstances  of 
his  burial,  could  not  find  the  spot  unless  directed  to 
it  as  was  the  writer  of  these  words.  The  grave  of 
the  builder  of  the  first  successful  passenger  steam- 
boat and  of  the  first  steamship  of  war  that  was  ever 
launched,  is  unmarked  by  a  monument  or  even  by 
a  stone  of  any  kind  bearing  his  name  !  How  pro- 
phetic were  the  words  of  Emmet  as  he  ad- 
dressed Mr.  Fulton  while  pleading  his  case  before 
the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York  : 

"Yes,  my  friend  ;  my  heart  bleeds  while  I  utter 
it ;  but  I  have  fearful  forebodings  that  you  may 
hereafter  find  in  public  faith  a  broken  staff  for  your 
support,  and  receive  from  public  gratitude  a  broken 
heart  for  your  reward." 


FULTON'S  GRAVE. 


169 


The  grave  is  but  a  few  yards  from  the  Elevated 
Railway,  where  every  day  pass  hundreds  of  trains 
bearing  thousands  of  passengers  in  their  journeys 
between  the  business  and  residence  portions  of 
New  York.  How  many  of  these  thousands  know 
where.  Fulton  is  buried?  Could  not  the  Trinity 
corporation  spare  from  its  vast  accumulation  of 
wealth  sufficient  money  to  pay  the  cost  of  a  plain 
shaft  bearing  the  words  ''Robert  Fulton"?  Such 
a  monument  need  not  be  costly,  and  the  justice  and 
propriety  of  its  erection  no  man  will  deny. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


First  ocean  voyage  of  a  steamer — The  Slevens  family  and  their  work  in 
steam  navigation — The  Stevens  Battery — Commodore  Vanderbilt — His 
opposition  boats  and  his  steamship  enterprises — The  Chancellor  Living- 
ston— Modern  steamboats  on  the  Hudson — Incidents  and  anecdotes  of 
steamboating— The  fastest  boats. 

WE  have  seen  how  steamboats  were  success- 
fully established  on  the  Hudson  River  and 
on  Long  Island  Sound,  and  have  also  learned  some- 
thing of  their  first  appearance  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi.  The  first  ocean  voyage  of 
a  steamer  was  made  from  New  York  to  Philadel- 
phia in  the  summer  of  1808.  It  was  performed  by 
the  steamboat  Phoenix,  built  by  Col.  John  Stevens 
at  Hoboken.  The  Phoenix  was  originally  intended 
for  the  navigation  of  the  Hudson,  but  in  conse- 
quence of  the  monopoly  of  Fulton  and  Livingston 
in  New  York  waters,  Col.  Stevens  decided  to  take 
his  boat  around  to  the  Delaware  River,  where  she 
ran  successfully  for  several  years. 

Other  boats  were  built  by  Col.  Stevens  and  his 
sons,  not  only  for  the  Delaware  River,  but  for  the 
Connecticut,  and  later  on  for  the  Hudson  and  other 
waters  contiguous  to  New  York. 


THE  STEVENS  FAMILY.  17I 

Colonel  John  Stevens  was  born  in  New  York  in 
1749,  anvd  died  in  Hoboken  in  1838.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  last  cc^ntury  he  turned  his  attention  to 
the  availability  of  the  steam-engine  for  propelling 
boats,  and  in  1791  made  his  first  experiment.  It 
has  been  claimed  that  he  invented  the  tubular 
boiler  about  1803  1804.  Admirable  Preble  says 
a  patent  for  that  invention  was  taken  out  by  Na- 
than Reed  in  1 790.    As  early  as  1 789,  Stevens 


Stevens'  Return  Tubular  Boiler. 


sent  a  memorial  to  the  Legislature,  in  which  he 
claimed  to  have  solved  the  problem  of  steam  navi- 
gation. But  he  does  not  seem  to  have  given  it  es- 
pecial attention  for  several  years  after  that  time. 
Before  Chancellor  Livingston  went  to  France,  he 
had  several  conferences  with  Col.  Stevens  on  the 
subject  of  steam  navigation,  but  nothing  of  conse- 
quence came  from  their  relations. 

As  before  stated,  Stevens'  first  steamboat  was 
launched  in  1804,  and  easily  crossed  the  Hudson 


172 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


from  Hoboken  to  New  York.  He  used  for  this 
experiment  a  rotary  engine,  but  its  operations  were 
unsatisfactory,  and  he  removed  it  to  make  place 
for  one  of  Watts'  engines.  The  boilers  were  tubu- 
lar, and  said  to  have  been  the  first  constructed  on 
that  principle.  The  machinery  was  made  by  Col. 
Stevens  at  his  shop  in  Hoboken,  and  was  some- 
what complicated  ;  it  communicated  motion  to  the 
twin  screws  which  propelled  the  craft,  and  which 
had  been  made  with  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  under 
the  directions  of  the  designer  of  the  apparatus. 

His  second  steamboat,  the  Phoenix,  was  the  one 
which  made  the  first  sea  voyage  ever  performed  by 
a  steam-vessel.  The  Phoenix,  on  this  memorable 
occasion,  was  commanded  by  Capt.  De  Graw,  and 
her  engines  were  in  charge  of  Robert  Livingston 
Stevens,  a  son  of  Col.  John  Stevens  ;  he  was  then 
only  twenty  years  of  age,  but  had  already  distin- 
guished himself  for  his  mechanical  and  technical 
ability.  The  steamer  was  accompanied  by  a 
schooner  as  a  matter  of  precaution,  in  case  of  acci- 
dent. A  storm  arose,  and  the  schooner  was  driven 
to  sea,  and  did  not  return  for  several  days  ;  but  the 
Phoenix  put  into  Barnegat,  where  she  remained  till 
the  storm  was  over,  when  she  continued  her  voyage 
around  Cape  May  to  Philadelphia. 

For  many  years  the  Phoenix  ran  between  Phila- 
delphia and  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  forming  one  of 
the  Swift-sure  Line,  connecting  Philadelphia  and 


THE  STEVENS  FAMILY, 


New  York  by  means  of  steamboats  and  stages.  A 
description  in  a  newspaper  of  the  time  says  she  had 
no  wheel-house,  and  sometimes,  when  the  wind  was 
high,  the  water  would  be  thrown  as  high  as  her 
smoke-stack.  Previous  to  her  departure  a  tin  horn 
was  blown,  and  there  was  always  a  crowd  at  the 
wharf  in  Philadelphia  to  see  her  off.  Her  engines 
were  high-pressure  condensing  and  her  boilers  sec- 
tional. 


Engine,  Boiler,  and  Screw  Propellers  used  by  Stevens,  1804. 

Robert  L.  Stevens  is  thus  mentioned  by  Scott 
Russell  : 

He  is  probably  the  man  to  whom,  of  all  others, 
America  owes  the  greatest  share  of  its  present 
highly  improved  steam  navigation.  His  father  was 
associated  with  Livingston  in  his  experiments  pre- 
vious to  the  connection  of  the  latter  with  Fulton, 
and  persevered  in  his  experiments  during  Living- 
ston's absence  in  France.  Undisputably  he  is  the 
pioneer  of  steam  navigation  on  the  open  sea.'' 

During  the  War  of  1812,  he  invented  and  sold 
to  the  Government  an  elongated  shell,  which  was 


174 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


intended  to  explode  by  percussion  after  being  fired 
from  a  smooth-bore  gun,  and  in  1816  he  began  run- 
ning a  steam  ferry-boat  between  Hoboken  and  New 
York.  The  Clermont  and  her  successors  for  sev- 
eral years  burned  wood  for  fuel  ;  in  1818,  Mr.  Ste- 
vens constructed  furnaces  for  burning  anthracite 
coal,  and  used  it  successfully  on  his  boats,  but  it 
did  not  come  into  extensive  use  for  purposes  of 
navigation  until  after  1830.  Previous  to  its  intro- 
duction, the  great  space  required  for  wood  had  ma- 
terially limited  the  room  for  freight  and  passengers. 
Some  authorities  say  the  earning  power  of  a  steam- 
boat was  increased  not  less  than  twent)^  per  cent, 
when  coal  took  the  place  of  wood,  while  the  dan- 
ger from  fire  was  diminished. 

Other  improvements  in  steamboats  are  credited 
to  this  gentleman.  In  1821,  he  replaced  the  heavy 
working-beam  of  cast  iron  with  a  much  lighter  and 
smaller  one  of  wrought  iron  ;  three  years  later,  he 
supplied  an  artificial  blast  to  the  furnaces ;  and 
from  that  time  until  his  death,  in  1856,  his  mind 
was  constantly  employed  with  the  development  of 
steam  for  purposes  of  navigation. 

In  1842  he  laid  before  the  Government  apian  for 
defending  the  forts  and  harbors  of  the  United 
States  with  floating  steam  batteries  ;  his  plans  were 
favorably  received,  and  he  was  authorized  to  go  on 
with  the  work,  which  was  not  begun  until  some 
years  later.     His  design  was  for  a  screw  steamer, 


THE  STEVENS  BATTERY. 


420  feet  long,  52  feet  breadth,  and  a  depth  of  28 
feet.  Her  sides  and  deck  were  plated  with  iron 
varying  from  three  to  six  and  a  half  inches  in 
thickness,  and  the  sides  were  at  an  angle  that  was 
intended  to  cause  projectiles  to  glance  off  on  strik- 
ing it.  In  ordinary  trim,  and  with  coal  and  stores 
on  board,  the  ship  had  a  draft  of  twenty  feet,  six 
inches  ;  when  in  action,  she  was  to  take  water  into 
certain  compartments  prepared  for  it,  so  that  she 
would  sink  two  feet,  thus  making  her  fighting  draft 
twenty-two  feet,  six  inches.  Her  guns  were  ar- 
ranged so  that  they  could  be  worked  by  steam,  and 
the  men  working  them  were  protected  by  shot-proof 
armor. 

The  Stevens  battery  was  incomplete  at  the  time  of 
the  inventor  s  death.  His  brother,  Edwin  Augustus 
Stevens  (born  1795),  spent  a  large  sum  of  money 
upon  her,  and  at  his  death,  in  1868,  left  one  million 
dollars  by  his  will  for  her  completion.  This 
amount  v/as  insufficient,  and  the  vessel  was  sold  in 
1874  to  the  United  States  Government  by  the 
State  of  New  Jerse\-,  to  which  it  had  been  be- 
queathed by  Mr.  Stevens.  Congress  did  not  see 
fit  to  appropriate  the  money  to  pay  for  her,  and 
she  was  finally  sold  at  auction  and  broken  up  for 
her  materials  and  machinery.  To  Mr.  E.  A. 
Stevens  the  city  of  Hoboken  and  the  country  at 
large  are  indebted  for  the  Stevens  Institute  of 
Technology,  an  educational  establishment  of  no 
small  importance. 


176 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  better  known  as  the 
''Commodore,"  was  an  energetic  opponent  of  the 
enterprise  of  Fulton  and  Livingston  ;  he  had  no  re- 
spect for  a  monopoly  in  which  he  was  not  interested, 
and  throughout  his  life  his  energies  were  largely  de- 
voted to  breaking  up  the  enterprises  of  other  peo- 
ple, in  order  to  make  them  his  own.  He  was  born 
in  I  796  ;  at  sixteen  years  of  age  he  was  the  owner 
of  a  sail-boat,  which  he  ran  as  a  ferry  between  New 
York  and  Staten  Island,  and  when  eighteen  years 
old,  he  owned  two  sail-boats,  and  was  doing  a 
profitable  business  with  them.  In  1817  he  joined 
Thomas  Gibbons  in  building  a  steamboat,  to  run 
between  New  York  and  New  Brunswick,  New 
Jersey;  he  was  captain  of  the  boat  at  a  salary  of 
one  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  in  the  following 
year  he  built  and  commanded  a  larger  and  better 
boat  for  the  same  line.  In  a  few  years  he  became 
full  manager  of  the  Gibbons  Line,  and  by  1824  it 
was  paying  an  annual  profit  of  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars. In  1827  he  took  a  long  lease  of  the  ferry  be- 
tween New  York  and  Elizabethport,  New  Jersey, 
which  he  made  very  profitable,  and  in  1829  he  be- 
gan running  boats  on  the  Hudson  and  Delaware 
rivers,  and  on  the  route  to  Boston  by  way  of 
Long  Island  Sound. 

Commodore  Vanderbilt's  policy  was  to  compete 
with  existing  lines  by  building  better  and  faster 
boats  than  they  had,  and  running  them  at  lower 


COMMODORE  VANDjF.RBILT. 


177 


rates.  Frequently  passengers  were  carried  for 
nothing,  and  sometimes  competition  was  so  fierce 
that  meals  and  lodgings  were  included  irr  free  tick- 
ets. He  generally  continued  the  opposition  urntil  his 
competitors  abandoned  the  route  and  allowed  him 
to  establish  a  monopoly  of  his  own,  when  ti^^e 
prices  where  immediately  advanced  to  figures  that 
paid  a  handsome  profit.  Sometimes  he  was  bought 
off  and  induced  to  retire,  but  he  invariably  made 
money  by  the  retirement  ;  in  such  cases  the  old 
companies  did  not  long  remain  the  sole  possessors 
of  the  field,  as  a  new  opposition  would  be  organ- 
ized with  very  little  delay.  In  the  nineteen  years 
between  1829  and  1848  he  owned  and  operated 
nearly  fifty  steamboats,  of  which  the  larger  number 
were  built  by  him,  and  though  often  running  them 
at  heavy  losses  the  aggregate  of  business  gave  him 
handsome  profits. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  California  in  1848 
turned  his  attention  to  ocean  navigation.  In  1848-9 
he  built  the  steamship  Prometheus  and  in  1850  he 
sailed  in  her  for  the  Isthmus  of  Darien  with  the 
intention  of  establishing  a  route  to  California  ;  he 
had  secured  a  controlling  interest  in  the  American 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  Canal  Company,"  but  an  ex- 
amination of  the  route  decided  him  to  establish  a 
transit  across  Nicaragua  from  Grey  town  on  the 
Atlantic  side  to  San  Juan  del  Sur  on  the  Pacific. 
In  1 85 1  he  placed  three  steamers  on  the  Atlantic 


178 


RCjBERT  PULTO]^, 


side  of  the  line,  and  four  on  the  Pacific,  and  began 
^n  active  competition  with  the  ''United  States" 
and  Parcific  Mail"  companies  which  were  running 
by  way  of  Chagres,  or  Aspinwall,  and  Panama. 

Later  he  ran  an  opposition  line  over  the  entire 
route  covered  by  these  companies  and  was  finally 
bought  off  by  the  payment  of  a  large  subsidy,  as 
there  was  not  sufficient  business  to  enable  all  the 
lines  to  be  profitably  operated.  In  1855  he  estab- 
lished a  transatlantic  line,  which  was  discontinued 
in  1 86 1,  when  he  gave  his  finest  steamer,  the  Van 
derbilt,  to  the  Government  to  be  used  for  war  pur 
poses.  While  engaged  in  ocean  navigation  he 
built  eleven  steamships  and  was  the  owner  of  ten 
others,  or  twenty-one  in  all.  Commodore  Vander 
bilt's  connection  with  steam  vessels  of  all  kinds 
covered  a  period  of  forty-seven  years  and  at  his 
retirement  from  the  water  he  was  said  to  have 
accumulated  a  fortune  of  forty  millions  of  dollars. 

As  the  Chancellor  Livingston  was  the  last  of  the 
steamboats  planned  by  Fulton,  her  description  and 
history  deserve  a  place  in  this  memorial. 

Her  keel  was  one  hundred  and  fifty-four  feet  long, 
and  her  decks  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet ;  she 
was  thirty-two  feet  wide  and  drew  seven  feet  three 
inches  of  water  when  loaded.  Her  main  cabin  was 
fifty-four  feet  long  and  had  thirty-eight  sleeping 
berths  ;  above  this  there  was  a  ladies'  cabin  thirty- 
six  feet  long  with  twenty-four  berths,  and  there  was 


THE  CHANCELLOR  LIVLNGSTON. 


179 


a  forward  cabin  thirty  feet  long  with  fifty-six  berths. 
Then  there  were  other  berths  in  the  captain's, 
engineer  s,  and  pilot's  cabins,  and  altogether  there 
were  sleeping  accommodations  on  the  Chancellor 
Livingston  for  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  persons. 
Her  measurement  was  four  hundred  and  ninety-six 
tons,  which  was  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  tons 
larger  than  any  of  her  predecessors  on  the  Hudson. 
She  had  an  engine  of  seventy-five  horse  power, 
with  a  cylinder  forty-five  inches  in  diameter  and 


Chancellor  Livingston,  1815. 

seven  feet  stroke.  Her  boiler  was  twenty-eight 
feet  long  and  twelve  broad  ;  she  had  two  funnels, 
and  her  wheels  were  seventeen  feet  in  diameter, 
with  paddle-boards  five  feet  ten  inches  long.  She 
had  two  fly-wheels,  each  14  feet  in  diameter,  con- 
nected by  pinions  to  the  crank-wheel.  She  made 
eight  miles  an  hour  on  the  average  ;  with  strong 
wind  and  tide  in  her  favor  she  made  twelve  miles 
an  hour,  but  when  they  opposed  her  the  speed  was 
not  more  than  six.     She  was  afterwards  length- 


i8o 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


ened  and  provided  with  a  larger  engine,  which 
considerably  increased  her  speed. 

The  Chancellor  Livingston  ran  on  the  Hudson 
for  nearly  sixteen  years.  In  1832  she  was  bought 
by  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  and  Amos  H.  Cross,  of 
Portland,  and  placed  on  the  route  between  Boston 
and  Portland  as  an  opposition  boat.  Before  going 
on  that  route  she  was  provided  with  her  third  en- 
gine, which  had  a  56-inch  cylinder  and  six  feet 
stroke.  After  running  there  two  years  she  was 
condemned  as  a  sea-boat  and  broken  up  at  Port- 
land. Her  engines  were  placed  in  a  new  boat 
called  the  Portland,  which  was  launched  in  1835, 
and  took  the  place  of  the  Livingston  as  a  passen- 
ger boat.  She  was  chartered  to  the  Government 
during  the  Mexican  war,  and  was  finally  lost  on  the 
coast  of  Mexico  about  the  year  1848.  She  is  said 
by  some  to  have  been  the  first  boat  on  which  an- 
thracite coal  was  successfully  burned,  and  the  in- 
vention of  the  blower,  by  which  this  was  accom- 
plished, is  credited  to  her  engineer,  afterwards 
captain,  J.  B.  Coyle.  This  claim  is  stoutly  op- 
posed by  supporters  of  Robert  L.  Stevens.  They 
assert  that  the  latter  gentleman  used  it  on  the 
steamer  Passaic  in  18 18,  several  years  before  Coyle 
thought  of  it. 

When  the  Chancellor  Livingston  took  her  place 
on  the  New  York  and  Albany  route,  there  were 
many  wise  men  who  predicted  her  failure  on  ac- 


I82 


ROBERT  PULTON, 


count  of  her  great  size.  It  was  thought  she  would 
be  difficult  to  turn  in  the  bends  of  the  river  and  un- 
able to  avoid  collisions  with  sailing  and  other  craft, 
while  her  movements  in  coming  to  her  dock  at 
either  end  of  the  route  would  be  so  slow  as  to  ex- 
haust the  patience  of  passengers.  All  these  pre- 
dictions proved  without  foundation,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  large  boat  stimulated  the  building  of 
larger  ones.  The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that 
while  the  Livingston  was  of  greater  tonnage  than 
any  of  the  other  boats  constructed  by  Fulton,  she 
was  not  as  long  as  either  the  Car  of  Neptune  or  the 
Paragon,  which  were  175  and  173  feet  respectively, 
while  the  Livingston  was  165  feet.  The  superior 
tonnage  was  obtained  by  greater  width  of  beam. 

Compare  the  above  lengths  with  those  of  the 
steamers  that  navigated  the  Hudson  in  1838  and 
the  few  previous  years,  and  see  how  the  vessels 
grew  in  size  as  the  business  of  steam  navigation 
developed.  The  following  are  some  of  the  figures 
— the  name  of  each  boat  being  followed  by  its 
leno-th  in  feet  : 

De  Witt  Clinton,  230;  North  America,  212; 
Swallow,  233;  Albany,  212;  Rochester  and 
Utica,  200  each. 

In  1854  boats  of  the  following  lengths  were  run- 
ninor  on  the  Hudson  and  contioruous  waters: 

Isaac  Newton,  333;  Bay  State,  300;  Empire 
State,  304;  Oregon,  375  ;  Hendrick  Hudson,  320; 


MODERN  STEAMBOA  TS  ON  THE  HUDSON. 


183 


C.  Vanderbilt  and  Connecticut,  300  each  ;  New 
World,  376  ;  Alida,  286. 

In  1830  there  were  eighty-six  steamboats  run- 
ning on  the  Hudson  River  and  contiguous  waters. 

The  following  description  of  the  boats  on  the 
Hudson  was  written  by  Dr.  Lardner  in  1854.  Lit- 
tle changes  would  be  needed  to  adapt  it  to  the  pres- 
,  ent  time.  Although  more  than  thirty  years  have 
passed  since  it  was  penned,  electric  bells  have  taken 
the  place  of  the  old-fashioned  mode  of  signalling  to 
the  engineer,  electric  lights  have  been  introduced 
in  place  of  oil  or  gas  for  illuminating  purposes, 
some  of  the  boats  are  larger  and  their  cabins  are 
more  spacious  and  more  profusely  upholstered,  but 
in  nearly  all  particulars  the  conditions  are  the  same. 
The  extract  is  from  Dr.  Lardner  s  Museum  of 
Science  and  Arts,"  volume  ii. 

To  obtain  an  adequate  notion  of  the  form  and  struc- 
ture of  one  of  the  first-class  steamboats  on  the  Hudson, 
let  it  be  supposed  that  a  boat  is  constructed  similar  in 
form  to  a  Thames  wherry,  but  above  three  hundred  feet 
long  and  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  wide.  Upon  this  let  a 
platform  of  carpentry  be  laid,  projecting  several  feet  upon 
either  side  of  I  he  boat,  and  at  the  stem  and  stern.  The 
appearance  to  the  eye  will  then  be  that  of  an  immense 
raft,  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  long  and  some  thirty  or  forty  feet  wide.  Upon 
this  flooring  let  us  imagine  an  oblong  rectangular  wooden 
erection,  two  stories  high,  to  be  raised.  In  the  lower  part 
of  the  boat  and  under  the  flooring,  a  long  narrow  room  is 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


constructed,  having  a  series  of  berths  at  either  side,  three 
or  four  tiers  high.  In  the  centre  of  this  flooring,  usually, 
but  not  always,  is  enclosed  an  oblong  rectangular  space, 
upon  which  the  steam  machinery  is  placed,  and  this  en- 
closed space  is  continued  upward  through  the  structures 
raised  in  the  platform,  and  is  intersected  at  a  certain 
height  above  the  platform  by  the  shaft  or  axle  of  the 
paddle-wheel. 

These  wheels  are  propelled  generally  by  a  single  en- 
gine, but  occasionally  by  two.  The  paddle-wheels  are  of 
great  diameter,  varying  from  thirty  to  forty  feet,  accord- 
ing to  the  magnitude  of  the  boats.  In  the  wooden  build- 
ing raised  upon  the  platform  already  mentioned,  is  a  mag- 
nificent saloon,  devoted  to  the  ladies  and  those  gentlemen 
who  accompany  them.  Over  this,  in  the  upper  story,  is 
constructed  a  row  of  small  bedrooms — state-rooms — each 
handsomely  furnished,  which  passengers  can  have  who  de- 
sire seclusion,  by  paying  a  small  additional  fare.  The 
lower  apartment  is  commonly  used  as  a  dining-  and  break- 
fast-room. 

In  some  boats  the  wheels  are  propelled  by  two  en- 
gines, which  are  placed  on  the  platform  which  overhangs 
the  boat  at  either  side,  each  wheel  being  propelled  by  an 
independent  engine  ;  the  wheels  in  this  case  acting  inde- 
pendently of  each  other,  and  without  a  common  shaft  or 
axle.  This  leaves  the  entire  space  in  the  boat  from  stem 
to  stern  free  of  machinery.  It  is  impossible  to  describe 
the  magnificent  cotip  d' ceil  which  is  presented  by  the  im- 
mense apparent  length  when  the  communication  between 
them  is  thrown  open.  Some  of  these  boats  are  upwards 
of  three  hundred  feet  long,  and  the  uninterrupted  length 
of  the  saloons  corresponds  with  this. 

This  arrangement  of  machinery  is  attended  with  some 
practical  advantages,  one  of  which  is  a  facility  of  turning, 


MODERN  STEAMBOATS  ON  THE  HUDSON.        1 85 

as  the  wheels  acting  independently  of  each  other  may  be 
driven  in  opposite  directions,  one  propelling  forward  and 
the  other  backward,  so  that  the  boat  may  be  made  to  turn 
on  its  centre.  Although,  from  the  great  width  of  the 
Hudson,  no  great  difficulty  is  encountered  in  turning  the 
longest  boat,  yet  cases  occur  in  which  this  power  of  revo- 
lution is  found  extremely  advantageous.  Another  advan- 
tage of  this  system  is  that  if  one  of  the  two  engines  be- 
comes accidentally  disabled,  the  boat  can  be  propelled  by 
the  other. 

No  spectacle  can  be  more  remarkable  than  that  which 
the  Hudson  presents  for  several  miles  above  New  York. 
The  skill  with  which  these  enormous  vessels,  measuring 
from  three  to  four  hundred  feet  in  length,  are  made  to 
thread  their  way  through  the  crowd  of  shipping  of  every 
description  moving  over  the  face  of  this  spacious  river, 
and  the  rare  occurrence  of  accidents,  are  truly  admirable. 
In  dark  nights  these  boats  run  at  the  top  of  their  speed 
through  fleets  of  sailing  vessels.  The  bells,  through  which 
the  steersman  speaks  to  the  engineer,  scarcely  ever  cease. 
Of  these  bells,  there  are  several  different  tones,  indicating 
the  different  operations  which  the  engineer  is  commanded 
to  make,  such  as  stopping,  starting,  reversing,  slackening, 
accelerating,  etc.  At  the  slightest  tap  of  one  of  these 
bells,  the  enormous  engines  are  stopped,  or  started,  or  re- 
versed by  the  engineer,  as  though  they  were  the  play- 
things of  a  child.  These  vessels,  proceeding  at  sixteen  and 
eighteen  miles  an  hour,  are  propelled  among  the  crowded 
shipping  with  so  much  skill  as  almost  to  graze  the  sides, 
sterns,  or  bows  of  the  vessels  among  which  they  pass. 

No  spectacle,'*  adds  Dr.  Lardner,  can  be  more  re- 
markable than  a  large  steam  tow-boat  dragging  its  enor- 
mous load  up  the  Hudson.  They  may  be  seen  in  the 
middle  of  this  vast  stream  surrounded  by  a  cluster  of 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


twenty  or  thirty  loaded  craft  of  various  magnitudes. 
Three  or  four  tiers  are  lashed  to  each  side,  and  as  many 
more  at  the  bow  and  at  their  stern.  The  steamer  is 
almost  lost  to  the  eye  in  the  midst  of  this  crowd  of  ves- 
sels w^iich  cling  around  it,  and  the  moving  mass  is  seen  to 
proceed  up  the  river,  no  apparent  agent  of  propulsion 
being  visible.  As  this  watc7^  goods-train^  for  so  it  may  be 
called,  ascends  the  Hudson,  it  drops  off  its  load,  vessel  by 
vessel,  at  the  towns  which  it  passes.  One  or  two  are  left 
at  Newburgh,  another  at  Poughkeepsie,  two  or  three  more 
at  Hudson,  one  or  two  at  Fishkill,  and,  in  fine,  the  tug 
arrives  with  a  residuum  of  some  half  a  dozen  vessels  at 
Albany." 

Steamboating  on  the  Hudson  may  be  said 
to  have  reached  its  heio^ht  about  the  time  the  fore- 
going  description  was  written.  The  Harlem  Rail- 
way, connecting  New  York  and  Albany,  became  a 
competitor  for  the  through  business  between  the 
two  cities,  and  the  curious  spectacle  was  offered  of 
a  war  of  rates,  in  which  a  ticket  from  one  city  to 
the  other  could  be  bought  for  a  less  price  than  for 
a  point  half  way  between  them.  At  one  time  the 
fare  from  New  York  to  Albany  was  advertised  at 
one  dollar,  while  a  ticket  to  an  intermediate  point 
would  cost  twice  or  three  times  as  much.  Later, 
the  Hudson  River  Railway,  which  winds  along  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  river  and  rarely  leaves  it  more 
than  a  few  yards  away,  was  opened  for  business, 
and  became  a  new  competitor  against  the  steamboats. 
There  were   times  when   the  steamboats  carried 


INCIDENTS  AND  ANECDOTES. 


passengers  for  nothing,  and  the  railway  occasion- 
ally did  likewise,  but  the  free  passage  business  was 
generally  confined  to  the  rivalries  between  differ- 
ent lines  of  steamboats. 

Many  and  amusing  are  the  stories  told  of  the 
competitions  between  the  boats  on  the  great  river 
of  New  York.  The  walls  in  the  terminal  cities, 
as  well  as  those  along  the  route,  were  covered  with 
placards,  in  which  the  advantages  of  the  boats 
were  described  in  glowing  terms,  and  along  the 
streets  and  wharves  in  the  vicinity  of  the  landing- 
places  there  were  leathern-lunged  runners,  who 
made  the  air  resound  with  their  appeals  for  patron- 
age. A  hesitating  stranger  ran  the  risk  of  being 
torn  in  twain  by  rival  runners,  and  sometimes  a 
traveller  was  dragged  on  board  one  boat,  while 
his  satchel  was  triumphantly  transported  to  another. 

One  of  the  steamboat  anecdotes  relates  to  an 
old  lady  who  was  timid  on  the  subject  of  boiler 
explosions.  The  rival  runners  sought  to  enlighten 
her  by  the  most  earnest  assurances  that  there  was 
not  the  least  danger.  One  said  the  boilers  of  his 
boat  had  just  been  put  in  perfect  repair,  but  the 
other  man  retorted  that  his  boat  had  received 
entirely  new  boilers  only  the  day  before.  Then  the 
first  man  assured  her  that  new  boilers  were  at  that 
moment  being  placed  on  board  his  craft,  and  the 
workmen  would  complete  their  task  not  more  than 
five  minutes  before  the  time  for  starting. 


1 88  ROBERT  FULTON. 

The  second  runner  saw  his  chance  was  diminish- 
ing, and  appealed  to  one  of  his  associates,  who 
gravely  assured  the  lady  that  his  boat  had  no 
boilers  whatever,  but  was  run  entirely  by  cold 
steam  made  from  river  water.  We  took  'em  all 
out  last  week,"  said  he,  as  we  were  determined  to 
have  a  boat  that  would  n't  be  able  to  blow  up." 

Then  I  '11  go  on  your  boat,"  said  the  lady,  as 
that  's  just  what  I  want.  I  've  always  said  they 
ought  to  make  these  pesky  boats  without  boilers, 
and  then  they  would  n't  be  blowing  folks  up." 

But  if  the  boats  carried  passengers  for  nothing, 
they  did  not  run  entirely  without  remuneration. 
At  such  times  they  had  crowds  of  passengers,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  they  generally  revenged 
themselves  on  the  travelling  public  by  charging 
high  prices  for  what  was  sold  on  board.  In  some 
of  the  competitions  meals  were  included  in  the 
free  or  cheap  tickets,  but  this  was  not  usually  the 
case,  and  where  they  were  not  so  included  the 
boats  often  paid  their  running  expenses  by  the 
profits  of  what  they  sold  during  their  trips. 

For  the  last  thirty  years  the  number  of  steam- 
boats running  on  the  Hudson  has  not  varied 
greatly  from  year  to  year,  or  from  one  decade  to 
another.  But,  while  the  number  in  use  has  re- 
mained practically  unchanged,  their  size  has  in- 
creased. As  the  old  boats  have  been  withdrawn, 
new  and  larger  ones  have  taken  their  places,  and 


THE  FASTEST  BOATS. 


on  the  principal  lines  the  traveller  finds  the  maxi- 
mum of  speed  and  comfort  with  the  minimum  of 
expense. 

The  finest  boats  are  on  the  lines  to  Troy  and 
Albany,  and  during  the  summer  season  they  are  well 
patronized  both  by  day  and  by  night.  The  swift- 
est boat  on  the  Hudson  is  the  Mary  Powell  (at 
least  such  is  the  claim  of  her  owners),  which  plies 
daily  each  way  between  New  York  and  Pough- 
keepsie.  She  was  built  in  1861,  and  has  been 
twice  rebuilt  since  that  time,  her  hull  being  en- 
tirely reconstructed,  but  her  model  remaining  un- 
changed. Since  her  last  reconstruction  in  1881 
she  has  made  an  average  speed  of  twenty  miles  an 
hour,  and  during  the  month  of  June,  1882,  she  ran 
on  one  occasion  at  the  rate  of  twenty-six  miles  an 
hour  between  Milton  and  Poughkeepsie,  making 
the  four  miles  of  distance  in  nine  minutes. 

The  steamer  South  America  is  reputed  to  have 
made  twenty-six  miles  an  hour  on  the  Hudson  River 
a  year  or  two  after  she  was  launched.  Other  fast 
records  of  river  steamers  are  : 

Mary  Powell,  76  miles.  New  York  to  Pough- 
keepsie, in  3  h.  39  m.  30  sec,  August  6,  1874; 
Chrysopolis,  125  miles,  Sacramento  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, in  5  h.  18  m.,  on  December  31,  1861  ;  Alida, 
145  miles,  New  York  to  Albany,  6  h.  21  m.  ;  R.  E. 
Lee,  New  Orleans  to  Natchez,  279  miles,  16  h.  36 
m.  47  sec,  on  October  28,  1870  ;  the  same  steamer, 
New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis,  3  days,  18  h.  14  m. 


CHAPTER  X. 


The  first  steamboat  on  Western  M^aters — Oliver  Evans  and  his  boat — Ex- 
ploration of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  by  Nicholas  J.  Roosevelt — 
Building  the  first  steamboat  at  Pittsburgh — The  pioneer  voyage — Exciting 
adventures — Passing  the  falls  of  the  Ohio — The  comet  and  earthquakes 
of  1811 — Indians — Arrival  at  Nev/  Orleans — A  wedding  at  the  end  of 
the  voyage. 

WE  will  now  turn  to  the  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi and  study  the  history  of  steam  navi- 
gation upon  the  "  Father  of  Waters"  and  its  tribu- 
taries. In  1802  Oliver  Evans  agreed  with  James 
M'Keever,  of  Kentucky,  to  build  a  steamboat  to 
run  on  the  Mississippi  River,  between  New  Orleans 
and  Natchez.  The  boat  was  built  in  Kentucky  and 
floated  down  to  New  Orleans.  The  engine  was 
constructed  in  Philadelphia  under  the  supervision 
of  Mr.  Evans  and  shipped  by  sea  to  New  Orleans, 
but  before  it  arrived  the  boat  was  destroyed  by  a 
hurricane.  The  engine  was  a  high-pressure  one, 
but  its  dimensions  cannot  be  ascertained.  It  was 
set  up  on  shore  at  New  Orleans  and  used  for  saw- 
ing lumber,  and  its  engineer  reported  that  in  the  en- 
tire year  after  it  went  into  operation  it  did  not 
break  down  or  get  out  of  order  enough  to  stop 
the  mill  for  one  hour. 


OLIVER  I'.  VANS  AND  HIS  BOAT, 


191 


Oliver  Evans  was  an  enthusiast  on  the  subject 
of  using  steam  for  the  propulsion  of  carriages  on 
land.  He  predicted  that  carriages  would  one  day 
be  propelled  on  roads  of  wood  or  iron,  and  urged 
the  construction  of  a  railway  between  New  York 
and  Philadelphia,  but  could  not  find  any  one  who 
would  advance  the  necessary  capital  for  the  work. 
In   1787  he  obtained  from  the  State  of  Maryland 


Evans'     Oruktor  Amphibolis,"  1 804. 

the  exclusive  right  to  use  an  improvement  he  had 
made  in  the  steam-engine  for  propelling  vehicles, 
but  he  found  it  more  profitable  to  employ  it  for 
driving  mills.  Finding  it  entirely  successful  in  this 
respect,  he  gave  comparatively  little  attention  to  his 
earlier  project. 

In  1803-4  he  built  for  the  Board  of  Health  of 
Philadelphia  a  dredging  scow,  which  raised  the 
mud  from  the  river  by  means  of  a  steam-engine. 


192 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


To  show  that  vessels  could  be  moved  on  the  water 
and  carriages  on  land  by  steam,  he  fitted  his  scow 
with  wheels  at  the  place  where  it  was  built  and  pro- 
pelled it  by  steam  to  the  bank  of  the  river,  a  dis- 
tance of  a  mile  and  a  half.  There  he  launched  her 
after  removing  the  land  wheels,  and  when  she  was 
in  the  water  he  attached  a  paddle-wheel  to  the 
stern.  In  an  account  he  wrote  of  the  perform- 
ance, he  says : 

I  drove  the  scow  down  the  Schuylkill  with  this 
paddle-wheel  till  I  reached  the  Delaware,  and  then 
went  up  the  Delaware  to  the  city  ;  leaving  all  the 
vessels  going  up  behind  me  at  least  half  way,  the 
wind  being  ahead." 

The  movement  of  the  scow  from  the  place  where 
it  was  built  to  the  bank  of  the  Schuylkill  was  the 
first  instance  of  the  propulsion  of  a  land  carriage 
by  steam  in  America  and  the  fourth  in  the  world. 
His  boat-carriage  was  called  the  Oruktor  Am- 
phibolis." 

Whether  the  engine  which  Evans  built  for  the 
Mississippi  would  have  been  able  to  propel  a  boat 
against  the  current,  is  of  course  unknown,  as  the  de- 
struction of  the  boat  by  the  hurricane  and  the  em- 
ployment of  the  engine  in  other  work  prevented  the 
making  of  the  experiment. 

After  demonstrating  the  feasibility  of  navigating 
the  Hudson  with  steamboats,  Fulton  and  Living- 
ston   turned   their  attention  to  the  Mississippi, 


EXPLOR'ATION  OF  THE  OHIO  AND  MISSISSIPPL    1 93 

There  was  some  doubt  about  the  possibiHty  of 
stemming  the  powerful  current  of  the  great  river, 
and  before  investing  heavily  in  the  enterprise  those 
gentlemen  determined  to  investigate  the  matter. 
For  this  purpose  they  engaged  Nicholas  J.  Roose- 
velt, who  has  been  mentioned  elsewhere  in  connec- 
tion with  steamboat  experiments,  with  the  under- 
standing that,  if  his  report  was  favorable,  the  three 
men — Livingston,  Fulton,  and  Roosevelt — would 
be  jointly  interested.  In  1809  Roosevelt  (who 
had  been  recently  married)  went  to  Pittsburgh, 
accompanied  by  his  wife,  where  he  built  a  flat-boat 
on  which  they  descended  the  river.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  about  three  weeks  passed  on  shore  at 
Louisville,  and  eight  or  ten  days  in  a  row-boat 
between  Natchez  and  New  Orleans,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  lived  for  six  months  on  this  flat-boat. 
Of  this  voyage  the  lady  wrote  as  follows  : 

**The  journey  in  the  flat-boat  commenced  at 
Pittsburgh,  where  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  it  built. 
There  was  a  huge  box  containing  a  comfortable 
bedroom,  dining-room,  pantry,  and  a  room  in  front 
for  the  crew,  with  a  fire-place  where  the  cooking 
was  done.  The  top  of  the  boat  was  flat,  with 
seats  and  an  awning.  We  had  on  board  a  pilot, 
three  hands,  and  a  man  cook.  We  always  stopped 
at  night,  lashing  the  boat  to  the  shore.  The  row- 
boat  was  a  large  one,  in  which  Mr.  Roosevelt  went 
out  constantly  with  two  or  three  of  the  men  to 


194 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


ascertain  the  rapidity  of  the  ripples  or  current. 
It  was  in  this  row-boat  we  went  from  Natchez  to 
New  Orleans  with  the  same  crew.  *  ^  We 
reached  New  Orleans  about  the  ist  of  Decem- 
ber, 1809,  and  took  passage  for  New  York  in  the 
first  vessel  we  found  ready  to  sail.  We  had  a 
terrible  voyage  of  a  month,  with  a  sick  captain. 
The  yellow  fever  was  on  board  ;  a  passenger,  a 
nephew  of  General  Wilkinson,  died  of  it.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  and  myself  were  taken  off  the  ship  by  a 
pilot-boat  and  landed  at  Old  Point  Comfort.  From 
thence  we  went  to  New  York  by  stage,  reaching 
there  the  middle  of  January,  18 10,  after  an  absence 
of  nine  months. 

Once  while  in  the  flat-boat  on  the  Mississippi 
we  were  aroused  in  the  night  by  seeing  two  Indians 
in  our  sleeping-room,  calling  for  whiskey.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  had  to  get  up  and  give  it  to  them  before 
he  could  induce  them  to  leave  the  boat." 

At  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  and  other  cities  Mr. 
Roosevelt  delivered  his  letters  of  introduction 
and  was  everywhere  received  with  characteristic 
Western  hospitality.  He  was  listened  to  with  re- 
spect and  his  accounts  of  the  success  of  steamboats 
on  the  Hudson  were  accepted  as  truthful,  but  he 
was  unable  to  inspire  the  Western  people  with 
faith  in  his  project.  They  pointed  to  the  swift 
currents  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  and 
showed  how  different  they  were  from  the  gentle  flow 


EXPLORATION  OF  THE  OHIO  AND  MISSISSIPPI.    1 95 

of  the  Hudson,  and  from  first  to  last  he  received 
scarcely  a  word  of  encouragement.  He  was  re- 
garded as  a  visionary  enthusiast  whose  schemes 
could  only  bring  financial  loss  to  those  who  engaged 
in  them. 

The  pilots  and  boatmen  were  as  incredulous  as 
the  merchants  of  the  cities  and  the  residents  along 
the  river ;  they  could  not  believe  it  possible  for  a 
steam-engine  to  move  a  boat  against  the  current 
of  the  river,  and  some  of  them  did  not  fail  to  hint 
that  the  explorer  ought  to  be  in  a  lunatic  asylum. 
But  he  went  patiently  forward  with  his  work  of 
gauging  and  measuring  the  current  of  the  river  in 
many  places,  ascertaining  the  character  and  depth 
of  the  stream,  the  nature  of  the  sand  bars  and  their 
tendency  to  change  their  position  with  the  annual 
floods,  ascertaining  the  difference  between  high  and 
low  waters,  and  the  alterations  produced  by  the 
seasons.  When  he  returned  to  New  York  he  had 
a  large  amount  of  practical  and  statistical  informa- 
tion which  he  laid  before  Livingston  and  Fulton, 
with  a  favorable  report  on  the  proposed  enterprise. 

They  were  so  impressed  with  the  report  that 
they  immediately  arranged  for  him  to  return  to 
Pittsburgh  in  the  spring  of  1810,  to  superintend 
the  building  of  the  pioneer  steamboat  of  the  West. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  was  again  accompanied  by  his 
wife,  who  was  thus  the  first  woman  to  make  the 
voyage  in  a  steamboat  on  Western  waters.  She 


196 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


was  a  sister  of  J.  H.  B.  Latrobe,  of  Baltimore, 
and  the  account  which  follows  is  condensed  from 
a  paper  by  that  gentleman,  which  was  read  before 
the  Maryland  Historical  Society,  and  published  by 
that  body  in  1871. 

In  1 8 10  Pittsburgh  was  a  city  of  small  popula- 
tion, though  of  considerable  importance  geographi- 
cally and  commercially.  The  main  part  of  the 
town  was  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Monongahela, 
and  extended  from  the  junction  with  the  Allegheny 
for  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  up  the  former 
stream.  There  were  few  buildings  on  the  Alle- 
gheny side,  which  was  liable  to  overflow.  Under 
a  bluff  called  Boyd's  Hill,  and  close  to  an  iron 
foundry,  the  keel  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  steamboat  was 
laid.  At  the  present  time  the  depot  of  the  Pittsburgh 
and  Connellsville  Railway  covers  the  ground. 

Fulton  had  made  the  plans  for  the  steamboat 
before  Roosevelt  left  New  York.  It  was  to  be 
1 16  feet  long,  with  a  beam  of  20  feet.  The  engine 
was  to  have  a  cylinder  of  34  inches,  and  the  other 
parts  of  the  machinery  were  in  proportion  to  it. 
Owing  to  the  stronger  current  of  the  Mississippi, 
the  engines  were  made  more  powerful  than  for  a 
boat  of  similar  size  intended  for  the  Hudson. 

There  was  no  timber  at  Pittsburgh  for  building 
the  boat,  and  men  were  sent  into  the  forest  to 
procure  it.  The  necessary  ribs,  beams,  and  knees 
were  obtained  with  much  difficulty  on  the  banks 


THE  FIRST  STEAMBOAT  TV  THE   WEST.  I97 


of  the  rivers  that  unite  at  Pittsburgh,  and  floated 
down  to  the  temporary  ship-yard.  Much  of  the 
timber  was  unseasoned,  as  Mr.  Roosevelt  could 
not  procure  it  in  any  proper  condition,  and  was 
unwilling  to  wait  for  it  to  pass  through  the  season- 
ing process.  Whatever  sawing  was  required  on 
the  spot  was  done  in  the  old-fashioned  saw-pits, 
which  formed  a  feature  of  Pittsburgh  in  those 
days,  but  were  long  since  abandoned. 

The  only  workmen  that  could  be  found  at  Pitts- 
burgh were  those  accustomed  to  building  the 
barges  at  that  time.  Shipbuilders  and  all  the  ma- 
chinists were  brought  from  New  York,  and  there 
was  great  difficulty  in  finding  a  shop  where  any  part 
of  the  work  on  the  engines  could  be  performed. 
Certainly  the  builder  of  the  first  steamboat  in  the 
West  conducted  his  work  under  many  disadvantages. 

Hardly  was  he  fairly  at  work  before  a  sudden 
rise  in  the  river  backed  into  his  ship-yard  and  set 
afloat  all  his  timber.  This  happened  several  times, 
and  on  one  occasion,  when  the  boat  was  nearly 
finished,  the  waters  rose  so  high  as  to  threaten  to 
carry  her  from  the  stocks  and  set  her  adrift  in  the 
river  before  her  time. 

It  was  not  until  the  month  of  September,  1811, 
that  the  boat  was  ready.  She  was  successfully 
launched  and  received  the  name  of  New  Orleans, 
in  honor  of  the  place  of  her  destination,  but  many 
persons  predicted  she  would  never  reach  it. 


198 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


As  the  time  approached  for  her  departure,  and 
when  it  became  known  that  Mrs.  Roosevelt  in- 
tended to  accompany  her  husband,  the  many 
friends  that  she  had  made  in  Pittsburgh  tried  to 
dissuade  her  from  the  attempt.  Some  character- 
ized her  intention  as  folly  and  others  as  madness, 
and  finding  they  could  not  shake  her  determina- 
tion, they  appealed  to  her  husband.  He  was  told 
he  had  no  right  to  imperil  his  wife's  life,  however 
reckless  he  might  be  with  his  own,  and  at  one  time 
there  were  threats  of  taking  her  from  him  by  force 
and  locking  her  up  out  of  his  reach.  But  the 
woman  had  faith  in  her  husband,  and  in  spite  of 
the  showers  of  advice  she  did  not  waver  in  her  de- 
termination. 

In  the  latter  part  of  September  the  boat  made  a 
short  experimental  trip  on  the  Monongahela,  and 
a  day  or  two  afterward  started  on  her  memorable 
journey.  There  were  two  cabins — a  forward  one, 
for  gentlemen,  and  another  aft,  for  ladies.  The 
ladies'  cabin  was  comfortably  furnished  and  had 
four  berths,  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  was  its  sole  occu- 
pant. Her  husband  was  the  only  tenant  of  the 
gentlemen's  cabin,  as  no  one  else  had  the  temerity 
to  apply  for  passage.  The  crew  consisted  of  a 
captain,  an  engineer  named  Baker,  a  pilot  named 
Andrew  Jack,  six  deck  hands,  two  female  servants, 
one  waiter,  one  cook,  and  a  huge  Newfoundland 
dog  called  Tiger.     Fifteen  human  beings  and  a 


THE  PIONEER  VOYAGE. 


dog  were  the  living  occupants  of  the  pioneer  boat 
of  the  Mississippi  valley  on  its  pioneer  voyage. 

The  entire  population  of  Pittsburgh  turned  out 
to  witness  the  departure  of  the  New  Orleans. 
Cheers  echoed  on  cheers,  flags  were  flown,  handker- 
chiefs waved,  and  hats  flung  in  the  air  in  honor  of 
the  event.  The  boat  steamed  a  short  distance  up 
the  Monongahela,  then  swung  around  to  her  course, 
and  disappeared  behind  the  bends  of  the  Ohio. 
Down  she  sped  at  the  rate  of  eight  or  ten  miles  an 
hour,  and  in  a  little  while  all  doubts  concerning  her 
ability  to  descend  the  river  were  set  at  rest.  The 
problem  of  her  successful  ascent  was  yet  to  be 
solved. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  was  too  much  excited  to  sleep  on 
the  first  night  of  the  voyage,  but  paced  the  deck  or 
stood  or  sat  near  the  pilot  from  evening  until  morn- 
ing. The  engine  worked  smoothly  in  spite  of  its 
newness,  and  the  engineer  was  happy.  The  pilot 
had  had  misgivings  about  being  able  to  steer  the 
craft,  but  found  her  easier  to  handle  than  any  of  the 
keel-boats  or  flats  to  which  he  was  accustomed,  and 
he  too  was  filled  with  delight.  Even  the  unpoetic 
deck-hands  became  excited  at  the  novelty  of  the 
situation,  and  when  in  the  morning  all  the  crew 
were  called  to  return  the  cheers  of  the  inhabitants 
of  a  village  that  had  turned  out  to  greet  the 
steamer  as  she  sped  on  her  course,  there  was  never 
a  happier  set  of  men  afloat  on  the  Ohio. 


200 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


On  went  the  New  Orleans  without  accident  or 
hindrance,  and  on  the  second  day  after  leaving 
Pittsburgh  she  reached  Cincinnati  and  a^ichored  in 
the  river,  as  levees  and  wharf-boats  were  then  un- 
known. Many  of  the  acquaintances  which  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Roosevelt  had  made  on  their  first  journey 
came  off  in  small  boats  to  visit  them,  and  the 
whole  population  seemed  to  be  assembled  on  the 
banks.  ''Well,  you  are  as  good  as  your  word," 
said  some  of  the  visitors;  ''you  have  come  in  a 
steamboat,  but  we  see  you  for  the  last  time.  Your 
boat  may  go  down  the  river,  but  as  to  coming  up 
it,  the  very  idea  is  an  absurdity  ! " 

The  keel-boatmen  crowded  around  and  cracked 
all  sorts  of  jokes  with  the  crew  of  the  New  Orleans, 
who  had  been  selected  from  their  own  profession, 
but  some  of  the  flat-boatmen  seemed  to  have  a  bet- 
ter opinion  of  the  strange  visitor.  The  steamer 
had  passed  several  of  these  boats  a  short  distance 
above  Cincinnati,  and,  as  they  floated  by  with  the 
current,  some  of  them  proposed  a  tow  in  case  they 
were  again  overtaken.  But  all  were  agreed  that 
the  steamboat  could  never  ascend  the  river,  no 
matter  how  rapidly  she  could  descend  it. 

The  boat  remained  at  Cincinnati  only  long 
enough  to  take  in  a  supply  of  wood,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  Louisville,  which  she  reached  at  mid- 
night on  the  first  of  October,  1811,  on  the  fourth 
day  from  Pittsburgh.     There  was  a  brilliant  moon- 


202 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


light,  and  as  the  New  Orleans  dropped  anchor  in 
the  river  opposite  the  town,  the  roar  of  the  escaping 
steam  brought  all  the  inhabitants  from  their  beds 
to  ascertain  the  reason  of  the  unusual  noise.  A 
letter  of  that  time  records  the  fact  that  some  of  the 
good  citizens  thought  the  comet  of  i8i  i  had  fallen 
into  the  river  and  created  the  tumult  ! 

The  next  morning  Mr.  Roosevelt's  acquaintances 
and  others  of  the  citizens  came  on  board  and  wel- 
comed him  heartily.  They  commended  his  energy, 
but  repeated  the  same  words  of  dismay  that  had 
been  spoken  at  Cincinnati,  as  he  could  not  possibly 
come  back  after  once  leaving  them.  It  was  the 
first  and  last  time  a  steamboat  would  be  seen  above 
the  falls  of  the  Ohio,  and  this  they  said  to  their  sin- 
cere regret.  Still  they  were  so  impressed  with  his 
good  faith  that  they  gave  a  public  dinner  in  his 
honor,  at  which  a  great  many  complimentary  things 
were  said  and  all  sorts  of  good  wishes  expressed. 
To  make  a  proper  return  for  their  hospitality,  Mr. 
Roosevelt  got  up  a  dinner  on  board  the  boat,  and 
invited  as  many  as  the  forward  cabin  would  contain. 

While  the  feast  was  at  its  height  there  was  a 
rumbling  that  brought  everybody  to  his  feet  and 
caused  a  sudden  rush  to  the  deck.  All  the  guests 
thought  the  steamer  had  escaped  from  her  an- 
chor and  was  drifting  toward  the  falls  of  the 
Ohio,  where  everybody  would  be  lost.  Their  dis- 
may was  changed  to  delight  when  they  found  she 


THE  PIONEER  1^0  V AGE. 


203 


was  steaming  up  the  river,  and,  as  she  warmed  to 
her  work  and  increased  her  speed,  they  found 
themselves  carried  more  rapidly  than  they  had  ever 
before  travelled  on  the  water.  A  good  many  of 
the  incredulous  were  thus  convinced  of  the  success 
of  the  enterprise,  and  the  faith  in  the  steamboat  was 
materially  increased. 

On  his  departure  from  Pittsburgh  Mr.  Roose- 
velt had  intended  to  go  as  quickly  as  possible  to 
New  Orleans  in  order  to  place  the  boat  on  her 
projected  route  between  that  city  and  Natchez,  but 
on  reaching  Louisville  he  found  the  elements 
against  him.  Just  below  Louisville  are  the  cele- 
brated falls  of  the  Ohio,  which  can  only  be  safely 
passed  at  a  high  stage  of  water,  and  at  the  time  of 
his  arrival  the  river  was  altogether  too  low  for  his 
purposes.  It  was  necessary  to  wait  for  a  rise  which 
could  only  be  brought  about  by  a  rain  in  the  coun- 
try above.  To  utilize  the  time  as  much  as  possi- 
ble Mr.  Roosevelt  took  the  boat  to  Cincinnati,  and 
thus  convinced  the  doubting  Thomases  of  that  city 
of  her  ability  to  ascend  the  river  as  well  as  descend 
it.  She  was  greeted  with  even  more  enthusiasm 
than  on  her  first  visit,  as  there  could  no  longer  be 
any  question  of  her  ability  to  stem  the  current. 
There  was  universal  incredulity  when  she  arrived 
there  from  Pittsburgh  which  was  replaced  by  the 
most  unbounded  confidence  when  she  arrived  from 
Louisville. 


204 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


It  was  near  the  end  of  November  when  the  rise 
in  the  Ohio  made  its  appearance  and  the  water  was 
deep  enough  to  permit  the  passage  of  the  falls. 
The  depth  in  the  shallowest  part  was  only  five 
inches  more  than  the  draft  of  the  boat  and  the  rise 
had  ceased  ;  it  was  a  very  narrow  margin,  but  Mr. 
Roosevelt  determined  to  try  it  as  it  might  be  his 
only  chance  for  months. 

An  extra  pilot  was  engaged,  all  steam  that  the 
boilers  would  carry  was  put  on,  and  away  went  the 
boat  on  her  expedition.  Mrs.  Roosevelt  refused 
to  remain  on  shore  but  stood  near  the  stern  of  the 
boat ;  the  pilots  were  at  the  bow,  and  as  the  boat 
turned  into  the  current  the  shouts  of  the  crowd  that 
had  assembled  to  witness  her  departure  grew  fainter 
and  fainter  in  the  distance. 

The  safety  of  the  boat  depended  on  having  her 
speed  exceed  that  of  the  current,  and  as  she  dashed 
along  with  all  the  velocity  her  engines  could  give, 
added  to  that  of  the  rush  of  the  river,  she  seemed 
to  be  darting  like  an  arrow.  Rocks  rose  on  each 
side  of  the  channel,  the  water  was  dashed  in 
spray  on  the  deck  of  the  boat,  and  sometimes  the 
New  Orleans  seemed  to  pitch  forward  as  though 
about  to  be  swallowed  up.  Every  one  grasped 
some  part  of  the  boat  for  safety,  and  even  the 
Newfoundland  dog  shook  with  terror  as  he  crouched 
at  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  feet.  It  was  une  maiivaise 
quart  d' heure,  as  the  French  say,  but  it  was  quickly 


THE  PIONEER  VOYAGE, 


205 


4nd  safely  over.  The  danger  was  passed  and  the 
New  Orleans  rounded  to  at  the  foot  of  the  falls, 
where  they  discharged  the  pilot  who  had  accom- 
panied them  through  the  dangerous  channel. 

From  this  point  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  there  were 
no  more  falls  or  other  obstructions  to  navigation, 
and  the  pioneers  of  steamboating  on  the  Mississippi 
thought  their  voyage  would  not  be  marked  with 
any  further  incident  of  importance.  But  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  records  that  their  passage  of  the  falls  of 
the  Ohio  was  only  the  prelude  to  days  of  hor- 
ror. 

While  they  were  waiting  at  Louisville  there  were 
many  days  together  when  the  sky  had  a  dull  leaden 
hue  without  a  cloud.  The  sun  was  like  a  globe  of 
red-hot  iron  at  morning  and  evening  ;  its  color  was 
brightened  at  noon,  but  through  the  whole  day  one 
could  look  steadily  at  it  without  blinking.  The 
nights  were  starless  and  the  moon  even  at  the  full 
was  just  barely  visible.  This  atmospheric  condition 
continued  after  the  passage  of  the  falls  and  was 
followed  by  the  earthquake  whose  effects  are  still 
visible  at  New  Madrid  and  other  points. 

*  Mr.  C.  J.  Latrobe,  in  "  The  Rambler  in  North  America,"  published  a 
few  years  later,  wrote  as  follows  :  "  Many  things  conspired  to  make  the 
year  181 1,  tJie  annus  vrirabilis  of  the  West.  During  the  earlier  months,  the 
waters  of  many  of  the  great  rivers  overflowed  their  banks  to  a  vast  extent, 
and  the  whole  country  was  in  many  parts  covered  from  bluff  to  bluff.  Un- 
precedented sickness  followed.  A  spirit  of  change  and  recklessness  seemed 
to  pervade  the  very  inhabitants  of  the  forest.  A  countless  multitude  of 
squirrels,  obeying  some  great  and  universal  impulse,  which  none  can  know 


2o6 


l^OBEkT  PULTON. 


In  his  first  visit  in  the  flat-boat,  Mr.  Roosevelt 
found  coal  at  several  places  along  the  banks  of  the 
Lower  Ohio,  and  arranged  for  it  to  be  mined  and 
stored  for  the  arrival  of  the  steamboat  whose  keel 
had  not  then  been  laid.  He  found  the  coal  ready, 
according  to  agreement,  and  took  on  as  much  as 
his  boat  could  carry.  When  it  was  exhausted,  he 
took  in  wood  wherever  he  could  find  it.  At  least 
once  in  twenty-four  hours  the  boat  stopped  for 
wood  ;  there  were  no  wood-yards  then  as  in  later 
days,  and  in  nearly  every  instance  the  work  of  cut- 
ting and  preparing  the  desired  fuel  was  performed 
by  the  crew. 

As  the  New  Orleans  nearecl  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio,  it  was  found  that  an  unusual  rise  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi had  backed  the  latter  into  the  former 
stream,  and  for  a  long  distance  all  the  low  ground 
was  flooded.  Canoes  of  the  Chickasaw  Indians, 
who  then  inhabited  that  region,  were  paddled  about 
among  the  trees  ;  sometimes  the  Indians  attempted 
to  approach  the  steamer,  and  at  others  they  fled 
when  they  saw  it.     At  some  of  the  places  where 

but  the  Spirit  that  gave  them  being,  left  their  reckless  and  gambolling  life, 
and  their  ancient  places  of  retreat  in  the  North,  and  were  seen  pressing  for- 
ward by  tens  of  thousands  in  a  deep  and  solid  phalanx  to  the  South.  No 
obstacles  seemed  to  check  their  extraordinary  and  concerted  movement. 
The  word  had  been  given  them  to  go  forth  and  they  obeyed  it,  though  mul- 
titudes perished  in  the  broad  Ohio  which  lay  in  their  path.  The  splendid 
comet  of  that  year  long  continued  to  shed  its  twilight  over  the  forests,  and 
as  the  autumn  drew  to  a  close,  the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the 
Missouri  to  the  Gulf,  was  shaken  to  its  centre  by  continued  earthquakes." 


THE  PIOMEER  VOYAGE. 


the  boat  stopped  for  wood,  the  Indians  came  out 
and  talked,  by  signs  and  a  few  words  of  EngHsh, 
with  the  men. 

They  seemed  to  beHeve  that  the  steamboat  had 
some  connection  with  the  comet,  as  the  sparks 
from  the  chimney  bore  a  marked  resemblance  to 
the  fiery  tail  of  that  erratic  orb.  They  also  at- 
tributed the  smoky  atmosphere  to  the  steamer,  and 
thought  the  earthquake  was  caused  by  the  beating 
of  its  paddles.  They  looked  on  the  first  steamboat 
as  an  omen  of  evil,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards 
all  the  Indians  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  regarded 
the  fiery  craft  with  awe.  As  late  as  1834,  when 
the  Chickasaws  emigrated  to  the  Indian  Territory, 
hundreds  of  them  refused  to  be  carried  on  the 
steamboats,  but  made  the  long  and  weary  journey 
on  foot. 

The  first  shock  of  the  earthquake  was  felt  while 
the  steamer  was  anchored  below  the  falls  of  the 
Ohio.  The  effect  was  much  as  though  the  steamer 
had  suddenly  run  aground  ;  the  cable  shook  and 
trembled,  and  some  of  those  on  the  boat  felt  the 
qualms  of  sea-sickness.  Several  shocks  occurred 
during  the  night  and  for  many  succeeding  nights. 
When  the  boat  was  in  motion  during  the  day,  the 
tremblings  of  the  earth  were  unnoticed,  owing  to 
the  jar  caused  by  the  machinery  and  paddles.  It  is 
a  curious  circumstance  that  at  such  times  the  dog 
only  was  aware  of  the  earthquakes  ;   he  would 


?o8 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


prowl,  moaning  and  growling,  about  the  boat,  or 
come  and  place  his  head  in  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  lap. 

At  New  Madrid  they  found  a  large  part  of  the 
town  had  been  swallowed  up  ;  the  inhabitants  were 
in  the  greatest  terror,  and  begged  to  be  taken  on 
board  the  steamer  and  carried  to  a  place  of  safety. 
Transportation  for  so  many  or  even  a  small  num- 
ber was  impossible,  as  the  accommodations  of  the 
steamer  were  very  meagre,  and  the  supply  of  food 
was  only  sufficient  for  the  party,  while  purchase  of 
other  provisions  on  the  way  was  extremely  doubt- 
ful. The  steamer  continued  on  her  voyage  after  a 
very  brief  halt,  at  this  unhappy  spot.  At  every 
point  where  she  touched  in  the  region  covered  by 
the  earthquake  they  found  the  inhabitants  in  a  sim- 
ilar state  of  alarm. 

The  earthquake  lasted  from  November  till  the 
following  March,  and  extended  over  an  area  of 
country  stretching  nearly  three  hundred  miles 
southward  from  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  The 
ground  was  shaken  both  vertically  and  horizon- 
tally, the  horizontal  movements  being  the  most  de- 
structive. The  ground  rose  and  sank  in  great  un- 
dulations ;  fissures,  sometimes  more  than  half  a 
mile  long,  were  opened  in  the  earth,  and  from 
these  fissures  mud  and  water  were  often  thrown  as 
high  as  the  tops  of  the  trees  ;  trees  on  the  banks 
were  toppled  into  the  river,  and  the  adventurers  on 
the  steamboat  had  several  narrow  escapes  while 


THE  PIONEER  VOYAGE, 


tied  up  to  the  banks.  So  many  times  were  they 
near  destruction  from  this  cause  that  they  aban- 
doned the  practice  of  tying  up  to  the  bank  at  night, 
but  preferred  to  make  fast  to  the  lower  end  of  an 
island  where  there  were  no  trees  to  endanger 
them. 

One  night  while  they  were  thus  tied  up,  the 
boat  was  repeatedly  shaken  by  logs  running  against 
it,  but  they  supposed  it  was  nothing  but  drift-wood, 
and  felt  no  alarm.  In  the  morning  they  found  the 
island  had  disappeared  during  the  night,  and  the 
tree  to  which  their  cable  was  fastened  had  sunk 
below  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  was  held  by 
its  roots.  They  were  obliged  to  cut  the  cable  in 
order  to  get  free. 

The  pilot  was  bewildered,  as  the  flood  and  earth- 
quake had  made  so  many  changes,  that  the  ordinary 
landmarks  were  not  to  be  found,  or,  when  found, 
were  of  no  use.  Tall  trees  that  had  been  his 
guides  were  gone  ;  islands  had  changed  their  shape 
or  disappeared  altogether.  He  found  shallows 
where  he  had  expected  deep  water,  and  deep  water 
where  there  was  formerly  dry  land  ;  and  where  the 
river  had  previously  flowed  around  bends,  there 
were  cut-off's,  through  which  more  than  half  of  the 
great  stream  was  pouring. 

Long  before  reaching  Natchez  the  steamer 
passed  out  of  the  region  of  the  earthquake,  and 
the  only  inconvenience  was  from  snags  and  saw- 


2IO 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


yers.  They  had  a  few  races  with  the  Indians,  and 
on  one  occasion  a  large  canoe  filled  with  the  red 
men  came  out  of  the  forest  abreast  of  the  boat  and 
made  for  her  with  all  possible  speed.  As  they 
were  ,  much  more  numerous  than  the  crew,  it  was 
not  desirable  to  receive  them  on  board,  and  accord- 
ingly all  steam  was  crowded  on  the  boat,  and  the 
Indians  were  soon  left  behind,  making  the  air  ring 
with  their  shouts. 

One  night  there  was  a  sudden  trampling  of  feet 
on  deck,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  his  wife  thought 
the  Indians  were  upon  them.  They  rushed  from 
the  cabin,  to  find  that  their  visitor  was  not  a  party 
of  Indians,  but  something  quite  as  alarming — the 
boat  was  on  fire  ! 

A  servant  had  placed  some  green  wood  close  to 
the  stove,  in  order  to  render  it  fit  for  burning. 
The  stove  became  overheated,  and  the  wood  took 
fire.  The  fire  communicated  to  the  joiner  work 
near  it,  and  the  cabin  would  have  been  in  flames 
very  speedily  if  the  servant,  whose  carelessness  had 
caused  the  accident,  had  not  awakened  half-suff'o- 
cated  from  the  smoke.  The  fire  was  under  good 
headway,  but  was  extinguished,  not,  however, 
until  it  had  destroyed  or  seriously  defaced  all  the 
interior  work  of  the  cabin 

Nobody  slept  for  the  rest  of  that  night,  and  the 
incident  did  not  tend  to  reassure  the  travellers 
or  make  them  content  with  their  floating  home. 


777^  PIONEER  VOYAGE. 


211 


The  Mississippi  steamboat  burns  like  tinder,  and 
when  once  a  fire  is  fairly  started  it  is  not  often 
extinguished.  Many  lives  have  been  lost  by  con- 
flagrations on  the  great  river  of  the  West,  and  the 
most  horrifying  annals  of  the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries  are  those  which  chronicle  the  burning  of  * 
steamboats.  In  one  accident  of  this  sort  no  less 
than  sixteen  hundred  lives  were  lost. 

At  Natchez  the  romance  of  the  voyage  ended. 
The  travellers  were  received  with  the  same  hospi- 
tality as  at  Louisville  and  Cincinnati,  and  later  on 
similar  courtesies  were  shown  them  at  New  Or- 
leans. From  Natchez  to  New  Orleans  the  river  is 
deeper  and  more  moderate  in  its  current  than 
above  the  former  city,  and  there  was  no  incident 
worthy  of  record  in  the  voyage  to  the  steamer  s 
destination. 

The  pioneer  steamboat  took  her  place  on  the  line 
between  Natchez  and  New  Orleans  ;  in  due  time 
she  was  followed  by  the  Vesuvius  and  the  Etna, 
and  these  in  turn  were  followed  by  others.  Steam- 
boats multiplied  rapidly  on  the  great  river  of 
America.  In  less  than  twenty  years  from  the  ad- 
venturous voyage  here  recorded  they  were  counted 
by  dozens  and  almost  by  hundreds,  and  pene- 
trated through  all  the  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi 
over  navigable  courses,  with  an  aggregate  of  more 
than  twenty  thousand  miles. 

Mr.  Latrobe  adds  to  this  narrative  as  follows  : 


212 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Although  forming  no  part  of  the  voyage 
proper,  yet,  as  this  has  been  called  a  romance,  and 
as  all  romances  end,  or  should  end,  in  marriage,  the 
incident  was  not  wanting  here.  The  captain  of  the 
boat,  falling  in  love  with  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  maid, 
*  prosecuted  his  suit  so  successfully  as  to  find  him- 
self an  accepted  lover  when  the  steamer  reached 
Natchez.  A  clergyman  was  sent  for,  and  a  wed- 
ding marked  the  arrival  of  the  first  steamboat  at 
the  chief  city  of  the  Mississippi." 


CHAPTER  XI. 


Early  navigation  of  the  Mississippi — Keel-boats,  flat-boats,  and  rafts — Their 
peculiarities — Reminiscences  of  the  keel-boatmen — Mike  Fink  and  his 
tragic  death — The  New  Orleans  and  her  successors — First  steamboat 
from  New  Orleans  to  Pittsburgh — Racing  on  the  Mississippi — The  last 
great  race — Snags,  sawyers,  and  the  Red  River  raft — First  ascent  of  the 
Mississippi  by  steam — What  the  first  steam-whistle  did. 


REVIOUS  to  the  introduction  of  steamboats 


jL  on  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries  the 
navigation  of  those  rivers  was  conducted  with  sev- 
eral kinds  of  craft.  They  were  respectively  called 
keel-boats,  barges,  flat-boats,  and  rafts.  Flat-boats 
and  rafts  are  not  unknown  at  the  present  day, 
though  their  numbers  are  not  as  great  as  in  past 
years ;  but  the  death-knell  of  the  keel-boat  and 
barge  was  sounded  when  steam  navigation  was 
successfully  established.  This  important  feature 
of  a  by-gone  age  merits  a  description,  as  it  was  a 
marked  characteristic  of  our  Western  civilization. 

The  keel-boat  was  long  and  narrow,  sharp  at 
both  ends,  and  of  light  draft.  When  it  had  a 
house  in  the  centre,  it  was  dignified  into  a 
barge "  ;  but  if  the  house  was  not  there,  the 
original  name  was  retained.  In  descending  the 
river  it  floated  with  the  current,  and  the  work  of 


214 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


the  crew  of  fifteen  or  twenty  men  was  not  severe. 
Laden  with  the  products  of  the  upper  part  of  the 
Mississippi  valley,  andperhaps  witha  few  passengers, 
the  keel  boats  went  down  the  river  to  New  Orleans. 
Returning,  they  brought  cargoes  of  goods  destined 
for  consumption  in  the  upper  country — sometimes 
on  the  account  of  the  owners  of  the  boats,  but 
more  frequently  as  freight,  for  which  a  fixed  price 
per  ton  or  hundred-weight  was  paid. 

The  ascent  of  the  river  was  long  and  tedious,  as 
it  was  necessary  to  stem  the  powerful  current  of 
the  Mississippi  for  many  hundreds  of  miles.  This 
business  developed  a  peculiar  race  or  class  of  men 
that  disappeared  with  the  adoption  of  the  steam- 
boat, and  is  known  at  present  only  in  tradition  or 
in  the  memory  of  that  oft-quoted  authority,  the 
oldest  inhabitant." 

On  each  side  of  the  keel-boat  was  a  plank  or 
board  extending  from  bow  to  stern,  and  known  as 
the  ''walking-board."  The  crew  was  equally  di- 
vided on  the  two  sides  of  the  boat,  and  each  man 
was  provided  with  a  long  staff,  known  as  a  ''set- 
ting-pole." The  lower  end  of  the  pole  was  planted 
or  "set"  in  the  bottom  of  the  river  and  the  other 
pressed  against  the  shoulder  of  the  man  who 
handled  it.  Having  placed  the  pole  properly,  the 
man  walked  from  the  bow  to  the  stern,  and  the 
united  force  of  the  crew  thus  propelled  the  boat  up 
the  stream.    A  steersman  was  at  the  stern  to  di- 


EARL  V  NA  VIGA  TION  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


215 


rect  the  course  of  the  boat,  which  he  did  by  means 
of  a  long  oar  that  had  a  tremendous  leverage 
against  the  water. 

The  life  of  the  keel-boatman  was  a  laborious  one, 
but  it  developed  a  wonderful  power  of  muscle  that 
was  often  used  for  less  honorable  purposes  than 
propelling  a  vessel  along  the  great  river.  When 
the  crews  of  two  boats  happened  to  meet  at  a  land- 
ing-place, a  fight  was  a  very  likely  occurrence,  es- 
pecially if  each  crew  possessed  a  man  of  more  than 
common  renown  for  his  prowess.  If  a  keel-boat- 
man claimed  never  to  have  been  whipped,  he  was 
obliged  to  try  conclusions  with  every  man  who 
chose  to  assail  him,  and  the  number  of  such  was 
not  small.  Sometimes  when  two  or  three  crews 
were  camped  together  at  night  the  most  perfect 
harmony  would  reign  until  some  one  would  imi- 
tate the  crowing  of  a  cock.  Then  from  another 
crew  would  come  an  answering  crow,  and  a  com- 
bat for  the  local  championship  would  follow  imme- 
diately. 

Certain  codes  of  etiquette  were  binding  on  all 
keel-boatmen,  though  they  were  never  formulated 
in  writing  or  made  the  basis  of  a  labor  union.  The 
men  were  a  terror  to  all  the  towns  and  villages 
along  the  river,  as  the  local  police  were  utterly  un- 
able to  control  them,  and  they  gave  free  rein  to  their 
fancies  in  the  way  of  rough  practical  jokes  on  peace- 
able inhabitants  or  on  each  other.  They  were  unerring 


2l6 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


shots  with  the  rifle,  which  was  always  within  reach, 
while  they  were  working  at  oars  or  poles  in  their 
voyages  on  the  river.  If  a  deer  or  a  bear  made  his 
appearance  within  range  on  the  banks  he  was  a 
mark  for  the  rifle  of  the  man  who  first  saw  him, 
and  a  shot  was  rarely  thrown  away.  They  did  fine 
service  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  (January  8, 
1815).  ''The  hunters  of  Kentucky,''  whose  ex- 
ploits on  that  memorable  day  have  passed  into 
song  and  history,  were  mainly  keel-boatmen  from 
the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio. 

With  the  rifle-ball  and  at  long  distances  they 
would  cut  the  hat-band  of  a  fellow-boatman  or 
upset  a  coff'ee  cup  that  might  be  resting  on  his 
knee.  To  cut  off  the  head  of  a  turkey  at  a  hundred 
yards,  while  the  bird  was  in  motion,  was  a  frequent 
feat,  and  at  night  they  would  snuff  a  candle  at  fifty 
paces,  and  leave  it  burning  or  extinguished  as  the)? 
chose.  In  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  many  of 
them  suggested  the  place  where  they  intended  to 
hit  an  enemy,  and  after  the  battle  was  over  their 
predictions  were  found  to  have  been  verified. 

One  of  their  favorite  amusements  was  to  drive 
the  nail  "  ; — a  nail  would  be  driven  half  its  length 
into  a  tree,  and  then  sent  home  to  its  place  by  the 
rifle  at  forty  paces.  When  two  of  them  quarrelled 
and  afterwards  made  friends,  their  test  of  amity  was 
to  shoot  a  small  object  from  each  other's  heads. 
One  of  the  most  renowned  keel-boatmen  was  Mike 


MIKE  FINK  AND  HIS  TRAGIC  DEATH.  21/ 


Fink,  and  his  reputation  as  a  marksman  was  of  the 
best  ;  he  lost  his  Hfe  in  one  of  these  pecuHar  tests 
of  reconciliation. 

Mike  had  quarrelled  with  a  fellow-boatman,  and 
after  they  made  up  their  differences,  the  usual  cere- 
mony was  ordered.  The  man  put  an  apple  on  his 
head,  and  the  regulation  distance  was  paced  off ;  Mike 
fired,  and  the  man  fell  to  the  ground  as  if  dead.  His 
brother,  who  was  standing  near,  immediately  turned 
and  shot  Mike  through  the  heart  ;  a  few  moments 
later  the  man  rose  to  his  feet  stunned,  but  not  hurt 
beyond  a  crease  in  the  scalp.  Mike  had  shot  be- 
tween the  apple  and  the  skull,  as  he  would  have 
barked  "  a  squirrel  from  a  tree.  Whether  he  did 
it  by  design  or  accident  was  of  course  never  known, 
but  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  done  from  mere 
warttonness. 

In  spite  of  their  lawlessness  and  their  frequent 
depredations  upon  the  store-houses  of  farms  or  the 
products  of  field  or  orchard,  these  men  had  a  keen 
sense  of  honor,  which  was  very  rarely  transgressed. 
They  could  be  implicitly  trusted  with  goods  or 
money  for  transportation,  and  if  any  thing  in  their 
charge  was  lost  or  damaged,  they  paid  its  full  value 
without  hesitation.  When  they  interfered  in  the 
quarrels  of  others,  they  always  took  the  side  of  the 
weaker  ;  if  two  rival  crews  were  about  to  fight,  an 
equal  number  of  men  was  told  off  from  each,  and 
the  contest  was  not  interfered  with  by  the  rest. 


2l8 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


When  a  crew  was  paid  off  at  the  end  of  a  voyage, 
there  was  a  season  of  wild  debauchery  until  the 
money  was  gone  and  the  men  had  found  work 
again.  A  keel-boatman  who  consented  to  work  on 
shore  immediately  lost  caste  among  his  fellows,  and 
could  not  associate  with  them  till  he  took  to  the 
river  again. 

The  ascent  of  the  river  from  New  Orleans  to 
Louisville,  with  the  keel-boat,  occupied  from  one 
hundred  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  days,  and  the 
downward  journey  was  rarely  less  than  forty.  The 
flat  boats  and  rafts  did  not  return  at  all,  but  were 
broken  up  at  New  Orleans  and  sold  for  their  tim- 
ber, while  their  crews  came  home  on  foot  or  shipped 
as  hands  on  the  keel-boats.  The  flat-boat  was 
more  familiarly  known  as  the  broad-horn  "  ;  it 
was  a  hundred  feet  long  by  thirty  broad,  square  at 
the  ends,  and  not  infrequently  it  reached  a  leng^li 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  with  proportionate 
breadth. 

The  broad-horns  were  built  on  the  upper  rivers, 
and  laden  with  corn,  wheat,  and  other  produce  of 
the  country,  and  their  great  length  and  width  en- 
abled them  to  carry  enormous  cargoes.  With  the 
rise  of  the  river  in  autumn  the  boats  started  for 
their  destinations  ;  they  floated  with  the  current, 
where  they  were  kept  by  the  enormous  oars  in  the 
hands  of  the  steersman  and  one  or  two  men  on 
each  side.     Keel-boats,  and  afterwards  steamboats, 


THE  NEW  ORLEANS  AND  HER  SUCCESSORS.  2ig 


were  required  by  the  law  of  the  river,  and  also  by  a 
regard  for  their  own  safety,  to  give  a  free  road  to 
the  broad-horn  ;  the  greatest  delight  of  the  flat- 
boatman  of  modern  days  is  to  compel  a  first-class 
steamboat  to  change  its  course  in  order  to  avoid 
contact  with  his  unwieldy  craft. 

Rafts  are  often  of  a  size  that  makes  the  broad- 
horns  appear  diminutive,  and  sometimes  they  carry 
quite  an  extensive  population.  A  raft  is  managed 
by  men  at  bow  and  stern,  and  the  steamboats 
always  seek  to  maintain  a  respectable  distance  be- 
tween themselves  and  these  great  masses  of  float- 
ing timber.  The  ire  of  a  raftsman  can  be  easily 
roused,  and  his  combative  qualities  developed,  by 
remarks  relative  to  the  speed  of  his  vessel,  its 
liability  to  leak,  and  a  query  as  to  how  often  he 
finds  it  necessary  to  pump  the  raft  dry. 

But  to  return  to  the  steamboat.  The  New 
Orleans  was  sunk  by  a  snag  near  Baton  Rouge,  a 
few  years  after  the  voyage  narrated  in  the  last 
chapter,  but  not  until  she  had  returned  to  her 
owners  much  more  than  the  thirty-eight  thousand 
dollars  expended  in  her  construction.  About  1850 
her  timbers  were  found  in  a  very  good  state  of  pres- 
ervation ;  they  were  discovered  during  an  unusu- 
ally low  stage  of  the  river,  where  they  had  lain  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

The  Enterprise,  one  of  the  immediate  successors 
of  the  New  Orleans,  was  the  first  steamboat  tg 


220 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


make  the  trip  from  New  Orleans  to  Pittsburgh. 
She  left  the  former  city  early  in  1815  with  a  cargo 
of  ordnance  stores,  and  reached  Louisville  in 
twenty-five  days  ;  the  time  consumed  on  the  rest 
of  her  trip  to  Pittsburgh  is  not  given.  The  river 
was  high  at  the  time,  and  the  boat  saved  a  consid- 
erable distance  by  chutes  "  and  passages  that  could 
not  be  used  in  the  middle  or  lower  stages.  She 
was  commanded  by  Captain  H.  M.  Shreve,  the  in- 
ventor of  the  first  snag-boat  and  the  founder  of 
Shreveport,  Louisiana.  On  her  arrival  at  Louis- 
ville there  was  great  excitement ;  triumphal  arches 
were  erected,  cannon  were  fired,  and  a  public  din- 
ner was  given  to  the  captain  for  his  successful 
ascent  of  the  great  river. 

While  responding  to  the  toast  in  his  honor  Cap- 
tain Shreve  taxed  the  credulity  of  his  listeners  by 
saying  that  under  more  favorable  circumstances 
he  could  make  the  journey  in  twenty  days.  In 
1823  there  were  similar  rejoicmgs  at  Louisville  when 
a  steamer  arrived  at  New  Orleans  in  fifteen  days 
and  six  hours.  At  the  banquet  in  his  honor  the 
captain  said  the  upward  passage  might  possibly 
be  made  in  fifteen  days,  or  in  six  hours  less 
time  than  he  had  taken.  Some  of  his  listeners 
agreed  with  him,  but  many  shook  their  heads. 
Little  more  than  a  decade  later  the  time  of  the 
trip  was  reduced  to  less  than  eight  days  ;  in 
1840  it  was  inside  of  six  days;  in  1850,  inside  of 


RACING  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


221 


five  days;  and  in  1853  the  voyage  from  New 
Orleans  to  Louisville  was  reduced  to  four  days  and 
nine  hours. 

The  distance  is  fourteen  hundred  and  eighty 
miles  and  the  average  speed  for  the  trip  in  the 
instance  last  mentioned  was  fourteen  miles  an  hour. 
It  was  in  a  race  between  the  steamers  Eclipse  and 
A.  L.  Shotwell,  which  was  won  by  the  former  by 
only  fifty  minutes;  seventy  thousand  dollars  were 
wagered  between  the  owners  of  the  boats  and 
there  were  private  bets  to  a  much  greater  amount. 

Steamboat  racing  was  for  many  years  one  of  the 
pastimes  of  the  Mississippi,  and  many  interesting 
stories  are  told  concerning  these  trials  of  speed. 
When  two  crack  boats  happened  to  be  going  the 
same  way  a  race  was  almost  among  the  certainties, 
and  if  it  was  announced  beforehand  both  boats 
were  pretty  sure  to  be  crowded  in  order  to  enjoy 
the  dangerous  sport. 

Dangerous  it  was,  as  the  contestants  would  carry 
all  the  steam  to  which  they  were  entitled  by  law, 
and  frequently  a  great  deal  more.  Pine  knots  and 
sides  of.  bacon  were  used  as  fuel;  tar  was  often 
poured  over  the  wood  to  make  it  burn  more  fiercely  ; 
and  :oal  was  drenched  with  turpentine,  whiskey,  or 
other  sp'irits.  A  negro  was  sent  to  sit  on  the  safety 
valve,  or  if  he  could  TiOt  be  ^spared  fvom  his 
work  weights  wer^^  placed  upon  it  to  hold  it  down. 
There  is  an  ariecdote  of  an  old  lady  who  took  pas- 


222 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


sage  on  a  steamboat  at  Cincinnati,  but  before  doing 
so  she  exacted  a  solemn  promise  from  the  captain 
that  there  should  be  no  racing.  I'm  afraid  of  my 
life,"  said  she,  and  I  don't  want  to  be  on  any  boat 
that  races.  Besides,"  she  added,  I  've  a  hundred 
barrels  of  bacon  on  board  as  freight,  that  I'm 
taking  to  market,  and  I  don't  want  any  thing  to 
happen  to  thatr 

During  the  downward  trip  they  overhauled  a  rival 
boat  and  tried  to  pass  it.  The  old  lady  became 
excited  over  the  contest,  forgot  all  about  her 
scruples  on  the  subject  of  racing,  and  urged  the 
captain  not  to  be  left  behind.  ''I  can't  beat  that 
boat,  "  was  the  captain's  reply,  ''witlv  the  sort  of 
stuff  we  're  burning.  If  I  only  had  some  bacon  I 
could  do  it." 

Well,  captain,"  said  the  old  girl  I  've  got  a 
hundred  barrels  of  bacon  down  there,  and  you  can 
jest  use  it  up  if  you  '11  only  get  ahead." 

The  captain  took  her  at  her  word,  :u.^  also  took 
the  bacon.  The  other  boat  was  distanced,  aid,  as 
no  accident  happened,  everybody  on  the  wirming 
craft  was  happy. 

In  the  race  between  the  Eclipse  and  Shotviell  it 
was  stipulated  that  both  boats  should  make  certain 
landings  for  passengers,  but  they  were  not  required 
to  carry  freight.  Tue  landings  were  made  by  means 
of  the  local  ferry-boats,  which  came  out  in  the  river 
to  meet  them,  fastened  alongside,  ;ind  exchanged 


RACING  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


223 


passengers  without  the  necessity  of  the  rival  racers 
slackening  speed.  Wood  was  taken  at  the  wood- 
yards  in  the  same  way.  Flat-boats  laden  with 
wood  dropped  into  the  river  as  they  saw  the 
steamers  coming,  and  were  made  fast  against  the 
rapidly  moving  boats.  The  wood  was  hastily 
thrown  on  the  deck,  and  then  the  flat  was  cast  off 
and  drifted  back  to  its  yard,  and  this  process  was 
repeated  at  all  the  wood-yards  where  either  boat 
was  supplied. 

The  engines  hardly  ceased  their  pulsations  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  voyage,  and  on  the 
part  of  the  river  between  Natchez  and  New  Orleans, 
where  the  current  is  sluggish,  the  boats  made 
eighteen  miles  an  hour.  No  accidents  happened 
to  either  of  the  boats,  but  this  is  by  no  means  the 
uniform  history  of  races  on  Western  rivers.  Over- 
pressure of  steam  has  caused  explosions  in  which 
many  lives  have  been  lost,  and  boats  have  taken 
fire  from  the  carelessness  and  excitement  conse- 
quent upon  a  race.  Of  late  years  this  form  of  sport 
is  rarely  heard  of,  and  it  is  possible  for  two  steam- 
boats to  travel  along  the  same  course  without  en- 
deavoring to  outstrip  each  other. 

The  following  table  shows  the  progressive 
improvement  made  in  the  speed  of  the  boats 
from  New  Orleans  to  Louisville  from  181 5  to 
1853,  the  year  when  the  highest  speed  was 
reached  : 


224 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


DATE. 

NAME  OF  STEAMER. 

DAYS. 

HOURS. 

MINUTES. 

May, 

1815 

- 

Enterprise. 

25 

2 

40 

April, 

1817 

Washington. 

25 

GO 

00 

Sept., 

1817 

oneiDy. 

20 

4 

20 

May, 

i8tq 

Paragon. 

T  8 

I  0 

10 

GO 

Nov., 

1828 

Tecumseh. 

Q 

0 

4 

GG 

April, 

I 

Tuscarora. 

7 

10 

OG 

Nov., 

1837 

General  Brown. 

0 

22 

GG 

Nov., 

1837 

Kanaolpn. 

/: 
0 

22 

GG 

Nov., 

1837 

Empress. 

0 

^  7 

GG 

Dec, 
April, 

1837 

Sultana. 

0 

^5 

GG 

1840 

Edward  Shippen. 

•5 

14 

GG 

April, 

1842 

jjeiic  01  me  vv  ebi. 

5 

14 

GG 

April, 

I  04  2 

uuKe  01  wneanb. 

5 

23 

GG 

April, 

1844 

Sultana. 

5 

1 2 

GG 

May, 

1849 

Bostona. 

5 

8 

GG 

June, 
May, 

1851 

Belle  Key. 

4 

23 

GG 

1852 

Reindeer. 

4 

20 

45 

May, 

1852 

Eclipse. 

4 

18 

GG 

May, 

1853 

A,  L.  Shotwell. 

4 

10 

2G 

May, 

1853 

Eclipse. 

4 

9 

30 

The  race  between  the  EcHpse  and  Shotwell  was 
the  last  great  one  in  the  history  of  steamboating  on 
Western  waters,  and  the  time  made  by  the  Eclipse 
has  never  been  beaten. 

The  Robert  E.  Lee,  in  June,  1870,  made  a  run 
from  New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis  in  3  days  18  hours 
and  14  minutes.  The  Natchez  left  New  Orleans 
at  the  same  time  and  ran  to  St.  Louis  in  4  days  and 
47  minutes.  The  distance  is  1,170  miles,  or  310 
miles  less  than  from  New  Orleans  to  Louisville. 

Steamboating  on  the  Mississippi  and  its  great 
tributaries  was  at  its  height  between  1850  and  i860. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  STEAMBOAT. 


225 


In  1858  there  were  on  the  Mississippi  and  its  trib- 
utaries eight  hundred  and  sixteen  steamboats,  with 
an  aggregate  capacity  of  326,443  tons.  The  Enter- 
prise and  her  sisters  had  a  capacity  of  from  seventy- 
five  to  one  hundred  tons  ;  the  boats  of  1 850-60  often 
exceeded  two  thousand  tons  in  measurement,  and 
could  carry  cargoes  of  more  than  three  thousand 
tons  each,  in  addition  to  several  hundred  passen- 
gers. Since  that  time  steamers  of  even  greater 
capacity  have  been  built,  chiefly  for  the  conveyance 
of  freight.  The  steamboat  passenger  business  has 
declined  owing  to  the  extension  of  railways  in  every 
direction,  and  their  reduction  of  the  time  required 
for  a  long  journey.  Ordinarily  the  best  of  the 
steamboats  require  five  or  six  days  for  the  trip  from 
New  Orleans  to  St.  Louis  or  Louisville,  which  the 
railway  can  easily  make  in  three.  The  American  is 
generally  in  a  hurry,  and  consequently  the  steam- 
boat cannot  compete  favorably  with  the  railway  for 
through  passenger  travel. 

The  Mississippi  steamboat  is  so  unlike  that  of 
any  other  river  system  of  the  world  that  it  merits  a 
special  description.  Her  bottom  is  flat,  as  she 
must  draw  the  least  possible  amount  of  water  ; 
— some  of  the  enormous  craft  capable  of  carrying 
three  thousand  tons  of  freight  can  pass  a  shallow  of 
five  or  six  feet  with  ease  and  safety,  while  the 
smaller  boats — with  wheels  at  the  stern — for  the 
navigation  of  the  tributaries  of  the  upper  Missis- 


226 


nODEkT  PULTON. 


sippi  and  Missouri  require  only  fifteen  or  eighteen 
inches. 

Some  of  the  captains  of  the  stern-wheelers  boast 
that  they  can  run  where  there  is  a  heavy  dew,  and 
others  profess  an  ability  to  navigate  the  moisture 
on  the  outside  of  an  ice-pitcher  in  a  muggy  day. 
Stories  have  been  told  of  sending  a  deck  hand  out 
with  a  sprinkling-pot  in  order  to  dampen  the  bed  of 
the  river  enough  to  allow  a  boat  to  proceed,  but 
they  cannot  be  received  as  entirely  truthful. 

A  first-class  boat  on  the  Mississippi  will  measure 
about  three  hundred  feet  in  length  by  sixty  in 
width.  From  her  keel  to  the  roof  of  the  upper 
cabin  is  about  forty  feet,  and  above  this  cabin  is  the 

Texas,"  which  contains  the  quarters  of  the  officers 
and  servants,  and  is  somewhat  shorter  and  nar- 
rower than  the  cabin.  Above  the  Texas  "  is  the 
pilot-house,  a  room  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  square, 
and  sixty  feet  above  the  keel.  It  contains  an 
enormous  wheel,  and  is  equipped  with  speaking 
tubes  and  bell  ropes  for  communication  with  the  en- 
gineer, and  it  has  glass  windows  all  around  so  that 
the  pilot  can  see  in  every  direction. 

The  main  deck  is  only  two  or  three  feet  above 
the  water,  and  below  it  is  the  hold  where  a  large 
amount  of  freight  can  be  stored.  The  boilers  and 
engines  are  on  this  main  deck  ;  freight  is  also  piled 
upon  it,  and  the  steerage  passengers  have  their 
quarters  there.     The  main  cabin  is  above  all  the 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  STEAMBOAT. 


227 


machinery,  and  is  a  broad  saloon  with  a  row  of 
roomy  cabins  on  either  side  ;  the  cabins  have  doors 
opening  into  the  saloon  and  other  doors  opening 
upon  the  ''guards,"  which  form  a  pleasant  loung- 
ing place  where  the  scenery  of  the  banks  can  be 
studied  or  the  time  whiled  away  in  reading  or  other 
occupations. 

The  forward  part  of  the  saloon  is  called  the 
Social  Hall,"  and  it  is  there  that  the  bar  is  located, 
cards  are  played — generally  for  money  and  often 
for  high  stakes, — and  masculine  passengers  cultivate 
each  other's  acquaintance.  The  ladies'  saloon  is  at 
the  stern  ;  it  is  divided  from  the  Social  Hall  by  a 
curtain  which  is  drawn  at  niofht  and  sometimes  in 
the  day,  but  on  many  of  the  smaller  boats  the 
division  between  the  two  is  by  an  imaginary  rather 
than  by  a  real  line. 

At  the  hours  of  meals  the  whole  saloon  or  such 
part  as  may  be  needed  is  utilized  as  a  dining  hall, 
and  in  the  evening  it  may  form  a  temporary  danc- 
ing hall,  the  music  for  which  can  be  readily  supplied 
by  the  colored  servants  of  the  boat.  The  price  of 
passage  is  inclusive  of  meals  and  lodgings  ;  on  the 
best  of  the  boats  the  table  is  not  inferior  to  that  of 
first-class  hotels  on  shore  and  many  travellers  have 
pronounced  it  superior. 

There  are  two  engines  on  all  the  side-wheel 
boats,  and  the  wheels  are  independent  of  each 
other.     A  few  boats  have  low-pressure  engines,  but 


228 


ROBERT  RULTOjV, 


the  great  majority  are  high  pressure,  and  discharge 
the  steam  directly  into  the  air,  sometimes  through 
steam-pipes,  and  sometimes  through  the  enormous 
chimneys  that  rise  through  the  double  line  of 
cabins,  so  that  their  presence  is  not  noted  by  the 
sojourners  in  the  saloon.  The  boilers  are  usually 
tested  for  1 50  or  200  pounds  pressure  to  the 
square  inch,  and  the  engines  are  worked  with  from 
90  to  120  pounds.  When  racing,  a  boat  carries 
all  the  steam  that  the  inspectors  permit,  and  some- 
times a  good  deal  more.  Hence  the  fearful  explo- 
sions, generally  with  heavy  loss  of  liie,  that  are  re- 
corded in  the  annals  of  Western  navigation. 

But  explosions  and  conflagrations  are  not  the 
greatest  of  the  dangers  of  Western  steamboating. 
Snags  and  sawyers  have  brought  many  boats  to 
grief,  especially  on  the  Missouri,  where  they  are 
more  numerous  than  elsewhere.  A  snaof  is  the 
trunk  of  a  tree  whose  roots  have  become  firmly 
imbedded  in  the  bottom  of  the  river,  while  the 
top  is  at  or  near  the  surface,  either  above  or  just 
below  it,  the  greatest  danger  being  in  the  latter 
case.  A  sawyer  is  similar  to  a  snag,  but  the  roots 
of  the  tree,  instead  of  being  firmly,  are  loosely 
fixed,  so  that  the  top  has  a  sawing  motion.  The 
current  carries  it  below  the  surface,  until  the  ten- 
sion of  the  roots  causes  it  to  rise,  when  it  slowly 
appears  above  the  water,  and  as  slowly  disappears 
again. 


SN-AGS  AND  SAIVYERS, 


229 


Snags  and  sawyers  are  the  great  dread  of  steam- 
boatmen,  and  in  fact  of  all  classes  of  navigators  of 
the  Western  rivers.  When  a  boat  runs  fairly  on 
either  of  them  her  destruction  is  almost  a  cer- 
tainty. In  one  instance  on  the  Missouri  River  a 
boat  was  impaled  on  a  snag  like  a  fly  on  a  pin.  It 
entered  her  hull  just  forward  of  the  engines,  rose 
through  all  her  decks,  and  killed  her  pilot  as  he 
stood  at  the  wheel.  The  snag  may  point  either 
up  or  down  the  stream,  but  the  direction  of  the 
sawyer  is  always  with  the  current. 

A  great  deal  of  money  has  been  spent — partly 
by  the  General  Government,  and  partly  by  the  State 
authorities,  and  the  cities  and  counties  interested 
in  river  navigation,  in  the  removal  of  snags  and 
other  obstructions.  Snag-boats,  built  especially  for 
this  work,  are  employed.  They  are  provided  with 
suitable  machinery  and  tackle  for  lifting  a  snag 
from  its  bed  or  cutting  it  off  far  below  the  surface 
of  the  water.  The  greatest  work  of  this  kind  has 
been  in  the  Red  River  raft,"  a  tangle  of  trees 
and  smaller  driftwood  that  formerly  filled  the 
Red  River  for  a  distance  of  nearly  forty  miles.  It 
was  a  formidable  barrier  to  navigation.  The 
United  States  Government  began  work  upon  it 
more  than  fifty  years  ago,  and  large  sums  of 
money  have  been  spent  upon  it  from  time  to 
time. 

Captain  Shreve  opened  a  channel  through  the 


230 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Red  River  raft  in  1 835-1 839,  but  it  steadily  ex- 
tended at  its  head  from  the  annual  accumulation 
of  drifting  timber.  A  channel  was  opened  in 
the  newly  formed  raft  between  1840  and  1850,  but 
in  1 87 1  the  foot  of  the  raft  was  at  a  point  above 
that  where  the  head  had  been  when  Captain 
Shreve  began  his  work.  It  has  since  been  opened 
through  its  whole  length,  but  must  be  watched 
and  worked  upon  every  year  to  keep  it  from  clos- 
ing again. 

The  oldest  existing  steamboat  company  in  the 
West,  and  probably  in  the  world,  is  the  United 
States  Mail  Line  between  Cincinnati  and  Louisville. 
It  was  organized  in  1818,  seven  years  after  the 
people  of  those  cities  predicted  that  neither 
Roosevelt's  boat  nor  any  other  could  ever  ascend 
the  Ohio,  and  has  owned  a  great  many  boats. 
It  built  the  first  steamboat,  the  General  Pike, 
designed  for  passengers  exclusively.  This  boat 
made  the  trip  from  Louisville  to  Cincinnati  in 
thirty-one  hours,  a  journey  which  was  reduced  to 
nine  hours  before  the  middle  of  the  century. 
Owing  to  the  competition  of  the  railways,  the 
business  of  the  steamboats  on  this  and  most  other 
river  lines  is  less  profitable  than  it  was  thirty  years 
ago. 

The  Missouri  was  first  ascended  by  steamboats  in 
1 8 19,  when  three  small  boats  chartered  by  Gov- 
ernment were  sent  there  with  an  exploring  party. 


THE  FIRST  STEAM  WHISTLE, 


231 


The  members  of  the  party  travelled  along  the  shore, 
while  the  boats  carried  their  baggage  and  sup- 
plies. Sometimes  the  explorers  were  separated 
from  their  boats  for  days,  and  on  one  occasion  they 
were  robbed  by  the  Pawnee  Indians  and  left 
hungry  and  half-naked,  until  relieved  by  the 
friendly  Kaws  and  conducted  to  the  boats.  One 
of  the  steamers  had  the  figure-head  of  a  serpent  at 
the  prow,  which  was  utilized  as  an  escape  pipe. 
When  the  Indians  saw  this  hideous  object  breath- 
ing steam,  they  fled  in  terror,  as  they  imagined 
that  the  evil  spirit  had  come  and  was  ready  to 
swallow  them. 

Progress  with  these  boats  was  very  slow,  as  their 
engines  were  weak,  and  they  frequently  ran  on 
sandbars.  On  their  return  journey  they  dropped 
down  the  stream  stern  foremost,  as  they  could 
thus  be  more  easily  managed  than  if  coming  head 
on.  At  that  time  the  use  of  the  stilts,  by  which 
steamers  are  lifted  off  from  sandbars,  was  unknown, 
and  when  boats  ran  aground,  especially  in  descend- 
ing, it  was  a  very  serious  matter. 

Steam  whistles  were  introduced  on  the  Missouri 
River  in  1844,  and  on  the  Mississippi  two  or  three 
years  earlier.  The  first  steam  whistle  on  a  steam- 
boat was  on  the  King  Philip,"  running  on  Narra- 
gansett  Bay,  in  1837.  Stephen  D.  Collins,  engi- 
neer of  the  King  Philip,  had  seen  a  whistle  on  a 
locomotive,  and  ordered  one  for  his  boat.     At  first 


232 


1^0 BERT  FULTON'. 


the  innovation  was  unpopular,  on  account  of  its 
noise,  but  its  usefulness  for  signalling  purposes  led 
to  its  rapid  adoption  as  soon  as  it  became  known. 

In  the  autumn  of  1844,  the  new  steamboat  Lex- 
ington started  from  St.  Louis  for  the  Missouri 
River.  She  had  a  steam  whistle,  the  first  on  the 
Missouri,  and  the  fact  was  known  only  to  Theo- 
dore Warner,  one  of  the  passengers.  While  the 
passengers  were  playing  cards  in  the  evening,  after 
leaving  St.  Louis,  Warner  turned  the  conversation 
to  steamboat  explosives,  and  remarked  that  he  felt 
perfectly  safe  on  the  Lexington. 

Why  so  ?  "  inquired  Mr.  Yocum,  a  planter  from 
Platte  County. 

''Because,"  was  the  reply,  ''she's  got  a  new 
patent  safety-valve  that  tells  the  passengers  when 
she 's  going  to  blow  up.  It  makes  a  most  unearthly 
noise,  and  when  you  hear  it,  it 's  time  to  get  aft  or 
jump  overboard." 

He  said  this  with  a  most  solemn  countenance 
while  studying  his  cards,  but  in  spite  of  his  serious- 
ness some  of  the  passengers  were  skeptical,  though 
Yocum  was  not.  While  the  passengers  were  at 
breakfast  next  morning,  the  steamboat  was  ap- 
proaching Washington,  Missouri,  and  the  whistle 
was  blown  for  the  first  time.  Horror  was  depicted 
on  some  of  the  faces,  and  the  words  of  Warner 
were  remembered.  Yocum  sprang  from  his  seat,  his 
face  blanched  and  his  hair  in  bristles,  and  shouted  : 


WHAT  THE  FIRST  STEAM  WHISTLE  DID,  233 


Run  for  your  lives ;  the  darned  thing  's  going 
to  bust ! 

Everybody  ran  for  the  stern  of  the  boat,  and  it  re- 
quired considerable  exertion  on  the  part  of  the 
knowing  and  cooler  ones  to  keep  Yocum  and  a 
few  others  of  the  excited  passengers  from  jumping 
overboard. 

The  New  Orleans  and  others  of  the  earlier  boats 
on  the  Western  rivers  had  their  boilers  in  the  hold, 
and  were  propelled  by  single  upright  engines,  pat- 
terned after  those  of  the  Clermont  and  other  Hud- 
son River  boats.  In  1816,  Captain  Shreve  built  the 
Washington,  at  Wheeling,  Virginia,  and  introduced 
several  novelties.  He  placed  the  boilers  on  the 
main  deck,  built  a  hurricane  deck  over  them,  used 
two  horizontal  direct-acting  engines,  driven  by  high- 
pressure  steam  without  condensation,  and  attached 
them,  one  on  each  side  of  the  boat,  to  cranks 
placed  at  right  angles.  He  also  adopted  a  cam 
cut-off  for  expanding  the  steam,  and  introduced 
the  flue-boiler  of  Oliver  Evans.  The  arrangement 
of  boilers  and  decks  became  popular  at  once,  and 
thus  the  Mississippi  steamboat  received  the  shape 
it  has  at  the  present  day. 

During  the  Civil  War  there  was  a  considerable 
fleet  of  light-draft  gunboats  on  the  Mississippi,  some 
specially  built  for  the  purpose,  and  others  altered 
from  existing  craft.  Several  were  of  the  ''Monitor  " 
pattern,  with  revolving  turrets,  and  so  constructed 


234  ROBERT  FULTON. 

that  they  could  be  easily  handled  in  the  tortuous 
river. 


Our  illustration  shows  the  Ozark,  which  was  built 
at  Mound  City  in  1863. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


Introduction  of  steamboats  on  the  great  lakes — The  "  Walk-in-the- 
Water  " — Growth  of  the  northern  lake  fleet — First  steamers  on  the 
Pacific — Early  steamers  to  and  in  California — The  Senator  and  the 
Golden  Age — Steam  lines  across  the  Pacific — Chinese  steamer  at  San 
Francisco — P'irst  steamships  around  the  world. 

WE  will  now  leave  the  Mississippi,  and  turn  to 
other  inland  waters  beyond  the  valley  of 
the  Hudson. 

The  advantages  of  steamboats  on  the  great 
lakes  of  the  United  States  were  not  Hkely  to  es- 
cape attention,  but  nothing  was  undertaken  in  that 
direction  until  several  years  after  the  successful 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  by  Roosevelt  and  his 
successors. 

In  1816,  the  steamer  Ontario  was  built  at  Sack- 
ett's  Harbor  for  the  navigation  of  the  lake  whose 
name  it  bore. 

The  pioneer  steamboat  of  the  great  lakes  above 
Niagara  Falls  was  the  Walk-in-the-Water  "  (three 
hundred  and  sixty  tons),  which  was  launched  at 
Black  Rock,  below  Buffalo,  on  the  28th  of  May, 
1818.  Her  hull  was  built  by  Noah  Brown,  of  New 
York;  her  engine  and  boilers  were  made  in  New 


236 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


York,  and  hauled  overland  by  teams  from  Albany 
to  Black  Rock.  There  was  only  a  small  popula- 
tion on  the  shores  of  the  lakes  at  that  time,  and 
the  cargoes  of  the  new  boat  were  chiefly  supplied 
by  the  American  Fur  Company. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  she  was  named  after  a 
Wyandotte  chief,  Walk-in-the-Water,"  and  an- 
other that  her  appellation  came  from  a  remark 
by  an  Indian  as  he  saw  the  boat  in  motion  on  the 
day  she  was  launched.  For  two  or  three  years  she 
was  considered  sufficient  for  transacting  the  com- 
mercial business  of  the  lakes  ;  in  18 18  she  did  not 
go  beyond  Lake  Erie,  but  in  18 19  she  was  sent  to 
Mackinaw  with  a  cargo  of  goods  for  the  American 
Fur  Company. 

Navigation  was  confined  to  Lakes  Erie  and 
Huron  until  1827,  when  the  waters  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan were  first  plowed  by  steam.  The  first  steam- 
boat to  visit  Chicago  was  in  1832  (some  say  it  was 
in  1 831),  with  a  detachment  of  government  troops 
sent  to  garrison  the  fort  and  aff'ord  protection  to 
the  few  inhabitants  against  the  Indians.  In  1831, 
there  were  eleven  steamboats  navigating  the  lakes, 
with  an  aggregate  capacity  of  2,260  tons,  so  that 
the  average  size  was  not  large.  In  1836  there 
were  forty-five  steamboats  of  9,119  tons,  and  in 
1847  steam  fleet  of  the  lakes  comprised  sixty- 
seven  side-wheel  boats  and  twenty-six  screw  steam- 
ers.    In  1840  the  trip  between  Buffalo  and  Chicago, 


STEAMBOATS  ON  THE  GREAT  LAKES.  237 


including  stoppages  at  Detroit  and  other  interme- 
diate ports,  occupied  fifteen  days,  and  there  were 
forty-eight  steamboats  engaged  in  the  trade. 

In  1884  the  steam  fleet  of  the  northern  lakes 
comprised  1,296  vessels  of  all  classes,  with  an  aggre- 


The  Side-Lever  Engine. 


gate  measurement  of  257,083  tons.  What  an  enor- 
mous growth  since  the  launch  of  the  Walk-in-the- 
Water  in  181 8  ;  5,410  licensed  officers,  including 
masters,  mates,  engineers,  and  pilots,  were  required 
for  the  management  of  this  fleet.  It  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  these  figures  do  not  include  the 


238 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Steamers  belonging  to  ports  in  the  British  do- 
minions which  He  along  one  side  of  all  the  great 
lakes,  with  the  single  exception  of  Lake  Michigan, 
the  only  one  of  the  chain  which  is  wholly  within 
the  United  States. 

As  on  the  ocean  the  screw  has  largely  supplanted 
the  paddle-wheel  for  the  propulsion  of  the  steamer 
on  the  lakes.  The  paddle  is  still  in  use  on  many 
of  the  smaller  coasting  boats,  but  the  steamers 
making  long  courses  and  carrying  heavy  cargoes 
are  nearly  all  propellers.  As  early  as  1854,  side- 
screw  propellers  were  advocated  as  a  substitute  for 
the  paddle-wheel ;  in  that  year  the  steamer  Baltic 
was  thus  altered  at  Buffalo.  Her  paddle-wheel 
engines  were  removed  and  replaced  with  side- 
propeller  machinery  ;  the  old  engines  were  high- 
pressure,  while  the  new  ones  were  low-pressure. 
When  altered  she  was  run  at  her  old  speed  with 
half  as  much  fuel  as  formerly,  and  was  able  to  carry 
much  more  cargo.  She  was  the  first  steamboat  on 
the  lakes  to  which  this  principle  was  applied,  but 
her  success  was  not  sufficiently  marked  as  to  lead 
to  its  general  adoption.  Some  of  the  boats  on  the 
lakes  at  present  have  double  screws,  but  the  great 
majority  are  equipped  with  the  single  screw  at  the 
stern,  as  in  the  ordinary  model  of  the  ocean  steamer. 

The  side  propeller  seems  to  have  been  tried  for 
the  first  time  in  1845,  ^^e  steamer  Iron  Witch, 
built  by  Ericsson,  for  R.  B.  F'orbes,  for  the  naviga- 


FIRST  STEAMERS  ON  THE  PACIFIC, 


tion  of  the  Hudson.  She  was  about  three  hundred  feet 
long,  and  the  first  17^071  passenger  steamer  plying 
between  Albany  and  New  York.  The  Iron  Witch, 
as  originally  equipped,  proved  a  failure  in  speed  ; 
her  machinery  was  removed  to  make  place  for 
paddle  engines,  with  which  she  was  a  prosperous 
and  profitable  boat. 

Previous  to  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California 
in  1848  steam  navigation  was  practically  unknown 
on  the  Pacific  coast  of  North  America.  In  March, 
1847,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  passed 
an  act  for  the  establishment  of  a  mail  service 
between  New  York  and  our  Pacific  coast,  and  a 
contract  was  made  with  A.  G.  Sloo,  by  which  a 
steam  line  to  cover  the  route  in  question  should 
be  put  in  operation.  The  line  was  established  by 
Law,  Roberts  &  Co.,  the  principal  parties  in  inter- 
est being  George  Law  and  Marshall  O.  Roberts. 
The  Falcon,  a  chartered  steamer,  was  the  first  to 
carry  the  American  flag  to  Chagres  and  open  the 
route. 

The  Ohio  was  the  first  steamer  built  under  this 
contract,  and  immediately  following  her  were  the 
Georgia  and  the  Illinois.  The  Ohio  was  248 
feet  long,  with  55  feet  beam,  and  a  measurement 
of  2,397  tons;  the  Georgia,  for  the  same  propor- 
tions, was  255  and  49  feet  and  2,695  tons.  The 
Illinois  was  267  feet  long  oa  d(xk,  255  feet  keel, 
40  feet  beam,  and  had  3  i  feet  depth  of  hold.  The 


240 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


engines  of  the  Ohio  and  Georgia  were  side-lever, 
while  those  of  the  Illinois  were  oscillating ;  the 
average  speed  of  the  Ohio  and  Georgia  was  twelve 
knots,  while  the  average  of  the  Illinois  was  twelve 
and  a  half  knots,  with  a  maximum  of  thirteen 
and  a  half. 

About  the  same 'time  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship 
Company  was  organized,  and  for  several  years  it 
ran  in  opposition  to  the  line  already  mentioned. 
Steamers  were  built  with  great  rapidity  in  1848 
and  the  few  succeeding  years,  as  the  rush  for  gold 
developed  an  enormous  business  which  was  highly 
remunerative.  The  steamer  California,  1,086  tons, 
built  by  W.  H.  Webb,  left  New  York  on  the  6th  of 
October,  1848,  for  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  way  of  the 
Straits  of  Magellan.  She  was  the  first  American 
steamer  on  the  Pacific,  and  her  advent  was  the 
cause  of  much  rejoicing  among  the  dwellers  on  our 
Western  shores. 

She  was  followed  by  the  Panama,  1,088  tons, 
and  the  Oregon,  1,699  tons,  and  not  long  after  by 
the  Tennessee,  Golden  Gate,  2,068  tons  ;  Colum- 
bia,  778  tons;  John  L.  Stephens,  2,189  tons; 
Sonora,  1,614  tons;  Republic,  850  tons;  North- 
erner, 1,010  tons;  Fremont,  576  tons;  Tobago, 
189  tons  ;  St.  Louis,  1,621  tons  ;  and  Golden  Age, 
2,280  tons.  A  corresponding  number  of  steamers, 
with  about  the  same  tonnage,  was  built  for  the 
Atlantic  service.     It  will  be  observed  that  none  of 


EARLY  STEAMERS  TO  CALIFORNIA,  24I 

the  ships  on  the  Pacific  side  exceeded  2,300  tons, 
while  most  of  them  were  below  2,000  tons  ;  the 
measurements  on  the  Atlantic  side  were  somewhat 
larger  on  the  average  than  for  the  Pacific  service, 
but  down  to  i860  there  were  few,  if  any,  steamers 
exceeding  3,000  tons. 

The  steamers  that  went  to  the  Pacific  in  the 


City  of  Peking. 

early  days  found  nothing  ready  for  them,  and  the 
companies  were  obliged  to  establish  their  own  re- 
pair shops  at  Panama,  and  also  at  the  California 
terminus.  The  Pacific  Mail  Company  built  a  dry 
dock  at  Benicia,  California,  a  few  miles  from  San 
Francisco,  and  also  established  there  a  foundry 
and  machine  shop,  which  is  capable  of  construct- 
ing a  marine  engine  of  the  first  class,  or  perform- 


242 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


ing  any  other  work  required  on  their  largest 
steamers. 

All  the  company's  steamers  are  built  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  and  sent  around  by  way  of  the 
Straits  of  Magellan  ;  the  price  of  labor  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  and  the  high  cost  of  materials  for  the 
machinery,  render  this  plan  more  economical  than 
it  would  be  to  build  and  equip  the  vessels  at 
Benicia  or  San  Francisco.  In  the  early  days,  the 
cost  of  coal  on  the  western  side  of  the  continent 
was  very  great  ;  at  one  time  the  Pacific  Mail  Com- 
pany paid  fifty  dollars  a  ton  for  its  coal  at  Panama 
and  San  Francisco,  and  for  a  considerable  period 
the  price  averaged  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-five 
dollars.  In  the  early  days,  coal  was  carried  in 
sailing  ships  from  the  Atlantic  coast  ;  afterwards  it 
was  brought  from  Australia,  and  still  later  coal 
mines  were  opened  in  California  and  along  the 
coast  of  Oregon,  Washington,  and  British  Colum- 
bia. All  the  coal  now  needed  there  for  steamship 
use  is  supplied  from  the  mines  of  California  and 
the  northern  coast,  and  the  high  prices  of  former 
days  exist  only  in  tradition. 

All  the  early  steamers  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Line 
were  built  of  wood,  and  propelled  by  side-wheel 
engines  ;  at  present  all  its  vessels  are  of  iron,  and 
propelled  by  screws,  the  old  wooden  steamers 
having  been  wrecked,  burned,  sold,  or  broken  up. 
In  1867,  the  company  established  a  line  from  San 


PACIFIC  MAIL  STEAMSHIP  COMPANY, 


243 


Francisco  to  Japan  and  China,  in  accordance  with 
a  contract  with  the  United  States  Government  for 
the  transportation  of  the  mails  ;  four  steamers,  the 
Great  RepubHc,  China,  Japan,  and  America  were 
built  for  this  service,  all  of  them  wooden  vessels  of 
about  four  thousand  tons  capacity,  with  walking 
beam  engines  and  paddle-wheels. 

In  1874  the  company  added  the  City  of 
Peking  and  City  of  Tokio,  two  magnificent 
screw  steamships  of  iron,  and  the  largest  ever 
built  in  America.  They  were  each  of  5,560  tons 
burthen,  423  feet  long,  48  feet  beam,  and  38  feet 
depth  of  hold. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  line  to  Japan  and 
China  the  Pacific  Mail  Company  established  lines 
to  Australia  and  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  also  a 
service  along  the  coast  of  Central  America  and 
Mexico.  These  lines  are  still  maintained  with 
varying  fortunes  consequent  upon  questions  con- 
cerning compensation  for  the  transportation  of  the 
mails. 

The  voyage  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com- 
pany's steamer  City  of  New  York"  from  New 
York  to  San  Francisco  in  1876  was  remarkable. 
The  total  distance,  13,552  miles,  was  performed  in 
59  days,  the  actual  steaming  time  being  54  days, 
14  hours.  The  entire  passage  was  made  on  the 
coal  shipped  at  New  York,  none  having  been  taken 
on  board  en  route. 


244 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


The  figures  were  as  follows 


New  York  to  Cape  Virgin,  east  entrance  of 

the  Straits  of  Magellan        .       .       .  miles,  7^074 

Through  the  Straits     .....  "  340 

Cape  Pillar,  west  entrance  of  Straits  of  Ma- 
gellan, to  San  Francisco       .       .       .  6,138 

The  total  distance,  by  observation,  run  was,  "  i3>S52 

The  total  distance  by  screw       .       .       .  i4>235 

The  total  revolutions  of  the  engines  during 

the  voyage  was     o       ,       .       .       .  3^33^?  105 

Total  amount  of  coal  consumed  for  steam- 
ing       .       .       .       .       .       .       .  tons,  1,440 

Average  consumption  of  coal  per  day       .  26.4 

"   mile      .  pounds,  239 

"       revolutions  per  day,  running  time,  61,250 

^'         per  minute        .       .  42.53 

"       speed  per  day,  running  time  .       .  miles,  248^ 

The  dimensions  of  the  ''City  of  New  York'' 
were:  Length,  353  feet;  beam,  \o\  feet;  tonnage, 
3,019  ;  engines,  1,000  horse-power. 

Steam  navigation  on  the  inland  waters  of  Cali- 
fornia followed  closely  upon  ocean  navigation  to 
the  Pacific.  As  soon  as  it  became  certain  that  gold 
had  been  discovered  in  California  and  that  there 
would  be  a  rush  of  fortune-seekers  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  enterprising  Americans  determined  to  utilize 
the  rivers  flowing  into  San  Francisco  Bay.  The 
steamer.  Senator,  a  boat  of  the  North  River  pat- 
tern, was  stripped  of  her  upper  decks  and  sent  from 
New  York  to  San  Fremcisco  by  way  of  Cape  Horn 
in  1848. 


THE  SENATOR  AND   THE  GOLDEN  AGE.  245 


Early  in  the  same  year  Capt.  R.  B.  Forbes,  of 
Boston,  sent  out  the  Mint,"  an  iron  steamer  sev- 
enty-five feet  long  and  fifteen  feet  beam.  She  did 
not  perform  the  voyage  under  steam,  but  was  car- 
ried on  the  deck  of  the  ship  Samoset.  She  was 
stowed  on  the  starboard  side  of  the  ship  and  the 
deck-house  was  removed  to  the  port  side,  in  order 
to  balance  the  weight  of  the  steamboat.  Her  en- 
gines were  all  ready  for  work,  and  she  was  launched 
soon  after  the  Samoset's  arrival  in  San  Francisco. 

The  ship  Edward  Everett  also  took  out  a  small 
steamer,  which  was  named  the  Edward  Everett, 
Junior.  Steam  was  raised  on  her  the  day  she  was 
launched,  but  she  proved  deficient  in  speed,  and 
was  shortly  afterwards  sold  to  some  circus  men  for 
$5,5oo.  The  honor  of  being  the  first  steamer  on 
the  Sacramento  River  lies  between  the  Mint  and 
the  Everett,  Junior,  and  the  friends  of  each  can 
produce  the  most  conclusive  evidence  in  support 
of  their  claim.  Neither  boat  had  a  long  career,  as 
both  succumbed  to  the  dangers  of  the  river  before 
reaching  a  green  old  age. 

Rarely,  if  ever,  has  there  been  such  a  successful 
boat  in  a  pecuniary  sense  as  the  Senator.  During 
the  early  years  of  the  California  gold  fever  she  had 
almost  a  monopoly  of  the  steamboat  business  on 
the  Sacramento,  and  it  was  for  a  long  time  a  cur- 
rent saying  in  San  Francisco  that  in  1849  ^^^^ 
the  Senator  earned  her  weight  in  gold.     She  made 


246 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


daily  trips  each  way  (120  miles),  and  the  price  of 
passage  was  $2  5,  exclusive  of  meals.  On  single 
trips  from  San  Francisco  to  Sacramento  her  re- 
ceipts often  exceeded  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and 
occasionally  they  reached  the  same  figure  on  down- 
ward trips,  just  before  the  departure  of  a  steamer 
for  New  York.  An  old  Californian  told  the  wri- 
ter of  this  volume  that  drinks  on  board  the  Sena- 
tor were  one  dollar  each  and  the  quality  of  the 
whiskey  was  very  bad.  Coin  was  scarce,"  said 
he,  ''and  when  a  miner  called  for  a  drink,  he 
opened  his  bag  of  gold-dust,  out  of  which  the  bar- 
tender took  a  pinch  between  the  ends  of  thumb  and 
forefinger.  A  pinch  a  drink  was  the  regular  tariff, 
and  the  owners  of  the  boat  sought  for  the  men  with 
the  broadest  thumbs  and  fingers  to  engage  as  bar- 
tenders. How  much  money  the  Senator  made,  I 
don't  know  exactly,  and  nobody  does,  as  the  owners 
kept  their  business  to  themselves,  but  it  is  safe  to 
say  she  cleared  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars  in 
five  years." 

The  Senator  was  afterwards  withdrawn  from  the 
Sacramento  trade,  strengthened  in  hull  and  upper 
works,  and  used  as  an  outside  steamer  on  the  coast 
route  between  San  Francisco  and  San  Diego. 
Occasionally  she  was  laid  up  when  business  was 
light,  but  she  was  kept  in  that  service  off  and  on 
until  1880  when  she  was  dismantled.  Her  engines 
were  removed  and  she  was  rigged  as  a  barque  and 


248 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


sent  on  a  voyage  to  Australia  ;  at  last  accounts  she 
was  still  in  use  as  a  sailing  ship. 

The  New  World,  a  Hudson  River  boat,  was  sent 
to  California  a  few  years  after  the  Senator,  and 
continued  in  active  service  on  the  waters  flowing 
into  San  Francisco  Bay  until  she  was  broken  up  in 
1883.  Another  New  York  boat  which  went  to  the 
Pacific  coast  was  the  Wilson  G.  Hunt  ;  she  is  now 
owned  in  Victoria,  British  Columbia,  and  is  run  as 
a  regular  steam-packet  between  Victoria  and  Nan- 
aimo.  The  California,  which  was  the  pioneer  steam- 
ship in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  is  still  in  existence,  but 
not  as  a  steamer  ; — her  engines  were  removed  sev- 
eral years  ago  and  she  is  now  a  barque  engaged  in 
the  lumber  trade  between  Puget  Sound  and  San 
Francisco. 

Several  fine  steamboats  have  been  built  at  San 
Francisco  and  neighboring  places,  and  also  on 
Puget  Sound  where  lumber  of  the  best  quality  is  in 
great  abundance.  The  fastest  river  boat  in  San 
Francisco  waters  is  the  San  Rafael  which  was  built 
in  New  York  and  then  sent  in  pieces  to  San  Fran- 
cisco where  she  was  put  together  again.  The 
/ferry-boats  plying  between  San  Francisco  and  Oak- 
land, on  the  opposite  shore  of  San  Francisco  Bay, 
are  among  the  largest  in  the  world  ;  one  of  them, 
the  Solano,  has  a  capacity,  as  reported  by  the  Gov- 
ernment inspector,  of  3,549  tons  ! 

In  1884  there  were  upon  the  Pc  ^'fic  coast  a  total 


STEAM  LINES  ACROSS  THE  PACIFIC,  249 


of  387  steamers  of  all  classes  with  an  aggregate 
measurement  of  99,532  tons.  The  total  of  licensed 
officers  for  these  steamers  (masters,  engineers, 
mates,  and  pilots)  was  1,752. 

The  establishment  of  the  Pacific  Mail  line 
between  San  Francisco  and  Japan  and  China  was 
followed  a  few  years  later  by  that  of  a  rival  con- 
cern, the  Occidental  and  Oriental  Steamship  Com- 
pany, consisting  of  British  steamers  chartered  for 
the  purpose.  After  a  period  of  opposition  the  two 
companies  became  friendly,  and  for  a  decade  or 
more  have  been  running  in  perfect  harmony.  They 
have  consolidated  their  offices  in  Japanese  and 
Chinese  ports  and  make  alternate  departures  from 
either  end  of  the  route,  so  that  travellers  can  count 
upon  a  steamer  across  the  Pacific  every  twelve  or 
fifteen  days. 

Ordinarily  the  voyage  between  San  Francisco 
and  Yokohama  occupies  twenty  days,  but  it  has 
been  made  inside  of  fifteen  days,  which  is  very 
good  progress  for  a  distance  of  nearly  five  thousand 
miles.  The  quickest  trips  are  the  eastward  ones 
when  the  steamers  are  laden  with  the  new  crop  of 
tea,  which  it  is  desirable  to  deliver  in  port  as  soon  as 
possible. 

At  such  times  the  tea-train  "  is  made  up  by 
the  Pacific  Railway  companies ;  the  cars  are  loaded 
at  the  side  of  the  steamer,  and  as  soon  as  the  train 
is  ready  it  is  dispatched,  with  the  right  of  way  over 


250 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


every  thing  except  passenger  trains.  Cargoes  of 
tea  have  been  deHvered  in  New  York  in  twenty- 
nine  days  from  Hong-Kong  ;  this  allows  twenty 
days  for  the  steamship  voyage  and  nine  for  the 
overland  transit,  making  no  deduction  for  the  time 
spent  in  transferring  the  cargo  at  San  Francisco. 

A  trans-Pacific  line  from  one  of  the  ports  of 
Puget  Sound  is  in  contemplation  and  also  another 
from  Victoria,  the  terminus  of  the  Canadian  Pacific 
RaiKvay.  The  latter  certainly  and  the  other  pos- 
sibly will  be  under  the  English  flag,  though  the 
parties  interested  in  the  Northern  Pacific  Railway 
declare  their  intention  of  sending  out  steamers  fly- 
ing the  standard  of  the  United  States. 

China  has  made  a  move  in  the  direction  of  taking  a 
hand  in  the  navigation  of  the  Pacific.  On  the  3 1  st  of 
August,  1880,  the  Chinese  steamer  Hochung  en- 
tered the  custom-house  of  San  Francisco,  paying 
the  regular  tonnage  dues  of  thirty  cents  per  ton,  and 
one  dollar  per  ton  extra  dues  on  alien  ships,  the 
latter  under  protest.  Extra  duties  of  ten  per  cent, 
on  the  cargo  were  also  paid  under  protest,  and  the 
whole  matter  was  referred  to  the  decision  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  Hochung  was  also 
the  first  Chinese  steamer  that  ever  visited  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands,  which  was  in  November,  1879,  when 
she  carried  to  Honolulu  431  Chinese  immigrants. 

A  San  Francisco  paper  said  of  this  arrival,  under 
the  heading    China  s  Debut  upon  the  Sea  "  : 


CHINESE  STEAM Ek. 


The  arrival  at  San  Francisco  on  the  30th  of  August  of 
the  first  Chinese  steamer  that  had  ever  crossed  the  Pacific 
deserves  commemoration.  Tliis  steamer,  the  Hochung, 
appeared  at  the  Golden  Gate,  seeking  admision  to  a 
foreign  port,  nearly  forty  years  after  the  isolation  in  which 
for  ages  China  was  encased  was  broken,  and  five  of  her 
ports  were  opened  to  the  commerce  of  the  civilized  world. 
The  treaty  of  1842,  by  which  this  concession  was  secured 
to  foreign  trade,  has  borne  fruit  slowly;  but  the  tardiness 
of  the  Chinese  to  undertake  maritime  enterprises  is  due 
not  so  much  to  their  love  of  seclusion  as  to  the  difficulty 
of  acquiring  the  art  of  navigation.  This  art  is,  and  ever  has 
been,  one  of  the  later  acquisitions  of  nations.  .  .  .  It  is  no 
wonder,  therefore,  that  the  Chinese  have  taken  forty  years 
to  master  the  nautical  skill  requisite  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  feat.  But  the  beginning  of  ocean  traffic  is 
now  made,  and  this  field  of  commercial  competition  once 
fairly  broken,  there  is  reason  to  hope  the  Orientals 
will  find  it  profitable.  ...  In  this  maritime  enter- 
prise they  are  favored  by  the  immense  coal  supply  of  the 
Middle  Kingdom.  Baron  Richthofen,  who  carefully  ex 
amined  the  coal-fields  of  China,  says  it  is  '  among  the  most 
favored  countries  of  the  world  as  regards  the  distribution 
of  mineral  fuel.'  This  able  geographer  computes  from  his 
own  inspection  that  the  '  quantity  of  very  superior  coal 
available  for  cheap  extraction  is  so  large  that,  at  the  pres- 
ent rate  of  consumption,  the  world  could  be  supplied 
from  Shansi  alone  for  several  thousand  years.'  This  vast 
coal-bed  is  reached  by  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  (river),  China's 
great  commercial  highway,  navigable  for  large  vessels 
twelve  hundred  miles  from  its  mouth,  and  easily  ascended 
by  ocean  steamers  as  far  as  Hankow,  seven  hundred  miles 
from  the  sea.  With  such  a  magnificent  deposit  of  mineral 
fuel  suited  for  use  on  steam-vessels,  the  day  is  not  distant 


252 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


when  the  Chinese,  renowned  for  ages  as  dextrous  mechan- 
ics, Avill  be  able,  with  a  Httle  nautical  training,  to  carve 
out  a  bright  future  for  their  nation." 

A  telegraphic  dispatch,  dated  London,  December 
7,  1 88 1,  announced  that  ''the  Meefoo,  the  first  of 
a  regular  line  of  steamers  under  the  Chinese  flag, 
arrived  in  the  Thames  w^ith  three  thousand  tons  of 
tea." 

War  steamers  have  followed  commercial  ones 
into  the  Pacific.  The  naval  flags  of  all  the  great 
nations  of  the  world  are  now  a  frequent  sight  on 
the  great  ocean  ;  Chili  and  Peru  have  their  fleets 
of  ironclads,  and  some  of  their  ships  are  worthy  of 
most  respectful  consideration. 

We  will  close  this  chapter  on  the  history  of 
steam  navigation  on  the  Pacific  coast  by  mention- 
ing an  exploit  of  one  of  the  vessels  that  afterwards 
became  famous  on  the  line  between  New  York  and 
San  Francisco. 

The  steamer  Golden  Age  was  sent  from  New 
York  to  Liverpool  in  1853;  she  was  a  paddle- 
steamer  of  great  size  and  power,  and  had  all  the 
latest  improvements  in  the  science  of  steamship 
building.  Among  other  innovations  she  had  no 
bowsprit,  which  was  then  thought  indispensable  to 
the  successful  performances  of  an  ocean  steamer. 
Her  owner  decided  to  send  her  to  Australia,  and 
she  had  no  difficulty  in  securing  freight  and  passen- 
gers.    She  made  the  quickest  passage  on  record 


ROBERT  FULTOI^. 


up  to  that  time, 'and  soon  after  her  arrival  at  Syd- 
ney it  was  determined  to  load  her  for  Panama. 

She  sailed  from  Sydney  May  ii,  1854,  and  in 
thirteen  days  reached  Tahiti,  where  she  coaled. 
The  work  took  six  days,  and  required  twelve  hun- 
dred tons  of  coal,  at  forty  dollars  a  ton.  On  the 
31st  of  May  she  sailed  from  Tahiti,  and  on  the 
19th  of  June  reached  Panama,  just  in  time  to 
transfer  two  hundred  passengers,  five  million  dol- 
lars in  gold,  and  her  Majesty's  mails  to  the  steamer 
Magdalena,  which  was  ready  to  sail  from  Chagres 
for  England.  Letters  by  this  trip  reached  London 
in  only  sixty-seven  days  from  Sydney,  which  was 
by  far  the  quickest  passage  then  known. 

The  performance  of  the  Golden  Age  was  more 
satisfactory  as  a  thing  to  boast  of  than  from  a 
pecuniary  point  of  view,  as  the  high  cost  of  coal 
consumed  on  the  voyage  entailed  a  heavy  loss  on 
the  owners.  Had  the  Golden  Age  continued 
down  the  Pacific  coast  and  around  through  the  At- 
lantic to  New  York,  she  would  have  been  the  sec- 
ond commercial  steamship  to  circumnavigate  the 
globe,  and  possibly  the  first. 

The  first  trip  around  the  world  by  a  merchant 
steamer  was  made  in  the  same  year — 1854 — by  the 
English  screw  steamship  Argo,  of  1,850  tons  meas- 
urement. She  made  the  passage  out  to  Australia 
via  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in  sixty-four  days, 
and  returned  via   Cape  H  orn  in  the  same  time. 


THE  S7'EAMEk  DRIVER. 


An  English  paper,  commenting  on  this  voyage,  said : 
Since  the  ancient  days  of  Jason  and  the  Golden 
Fleece  several  celebrated  ships  have  borne  the  re- 
nowned name  of  Argo,  and  certainly  we  consider 
the  present  steamer  not  the  least  worthy  of  the 
number  to  be  chronicled  in  history.  She  has 
proved  herself  one  of  the  most  notable  pioneer 
ships  of  the  nineteenth  century." 

It  is  said  that  the  steamer  Driver  of  her  Bri- 
tannic Majesty's  navy,  circumnavigated  the  globe  in 
1842-43.    No  details  of  her  voyage  are  at  hand. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


Early  navigation  of  Long  Island  Sound — Prohibitory  laws  against  Ful- 
ton and  Livingston — First  steamboat  to  Providence  and  Newport — 
Descri^Dtion  of  early  boats — Contrast  with  those  of  to-day — The  old 
sailing  packets— Steamboats  at  Boston  and  along  the  coast  of  Maine. 

ALLUSION  has  been  made  in  a  previous 
chapter  to  the  navigation  of  Long  Island 
Sound  by  steamboats  from  New  York  under  the 
grant  of  Fulton  and  Livingston. 

For  a  time  no  opposition  was  made  to  the  run- 
ning of  Fulton's  boats,  but  at  length  the  spirit  of 
hostility  broke  out  among  the  packet-owners  and 
others,  and  in  1821  the  Legislature  of  Connecti- 
cut enacted  a  retaliatory  law  that  no  vessel  bear- 
ing such  a  license  [the  monopoly  of  Fulton  and 
Livingston]  should  enter  any  of  the  waters  of 
that  State."  The  Fulton  and  Connecticut  were 
thus  driven  away  and  compelled  to  look  elsewhere 
for  occupation.  The  Fulton  had  been  running  be- 
tween New  York  and  New  Haven,  while  the 
Connecticut  made  regular  trips  between  New  York 
and  New  London. 

In  August,  1 82 1,  the  Fulton  made  an  excursion 
from  New  York  to  Providence,   carrying  eighty 


258 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


passengers.  Among  them  was  Hon.  John  Ouincy 
Adams,  Secretary  of  State,  who  proceeded  to  Bos- 
ton by  land  immediately  on  his  arrival  at  Provi- 
dence. The  steamer  left  New  York  at  5  p.m.  on 
Thursday,  and  arrived  at  Newport  at  7:45  p.m.  on 
Friday,  thus  occupying  nearly  twenty-seven  hours 
for  a  voyage  which  is  now  made  in  seven  or  eight. 
At  Newport,  Bristol,  and  Providence  the  whole 
population  came  out  to  visit  the  boat,  and  there  was 
the  wildest  excitement.  The  steamer  reached  Provi- 
dence at  nine  o'clock  on  Saturday  morning,  and  de- 
parted at  two  in  the  afternoon  on  the  return  trip. 
She  was  visited  by  thousands  of  people  at  Provi- 
dence, and  also  at  Newport.  One  of  the  pas- 
sengers who  kept  a  journal  of  the  excursion,  wrote 
as  follows  concerning  it  : 

We  reached  Newport  at  8  p.m.  on  the  return. 
It  was  quite  dark,  but  the  interest  appeared  to 
have  increased  rather  than  diminished.  I  took  a 
station  at  the  gangway  to  assist  the  inhabitants, 
and  particularly  the  ladies,  on  board  the  ship, 
notice  having  been  given  that  none  but  ladies  would 
be  allowed  on  board  at  first,  and  in  the  short  space 
of  twenty  minutes  I  handed  in  three  hundred  and 
thirty-seven.  I  found  that  this  number  did  not 
seem  to  have  thinned  the  crowd  in  the  least  degree, 
and  by  nine  o'clock  there  must  have  been  on  board 
upwards  of  six  hundred  ladies." 

In  the  following  June,  the  steamer  Connecticut 


EARLY  NAVIGATION  ON  7IIE  SOUND.  259 


went  from  New  York  to  Providence,  being  the 
first  boat  from  the  metropoHs  after  the  visit  of  the 
Fulton.  The  boats  having  been  excluded  from 
Connecticut  ports,  it  was  announced  (in  the  Provi- 
dence Journal]uv\^  3,  1822)  that  the  steamers  Ful- 
ton and  Connecticut  would  make  regular  trips  be- 
tween Providence  and  New  York,  touching  at 
Newport.  A  short  time  later  the  schedule  was  ad- 
vertised ;  the  boats  were  to  leave  Providence 
every  Wednesday  and  Saturday  at  6  a.m.,  and 
New  York  at  4  p.m.  on  the  same  days.  Fare 
between  New  York  and  Providence  ten  dollars, 
and  between  Newport  and  New  York  nine  dol- 
lars. 

During  the  autumn  of  1822,  the  rate  of  speed 
and  number  of  passengers  are  recorded  as  follows  : 
September  13th,  Fulton,  2  7  hours  from  New  York, 
40  passengers  ;  October  4th,  Connecticut,  32  hours, 
40  passengers  ;  October  6th,  Fulton,  24  hours,  26 
passengers;  October  loth,  Connecticut,  18  hours, 
35  passengers.  The  Fulton  was  hauled  off  in  No- 
vember, but  the  Connecticut  made  weekly  trips 
until  stopped  by  the  ice.  The  following  adver- 
tisement appeared  after  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Fulton  : 

The  Connecticut  will  leave  Providence  every  Tuesday 
evenin<^  to  go  dow  n  tlie  river,  in  order  to  start  from  New- 
port at  an  early  hour  on  Wednesday  morning.  It  will 
therefore  be  necessary  for  passengers  to  be  on  board  at 
Providence  at  ten  in  the  evening." 


26o 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


The  Fulton  has  been  elsewhere  described.  The 
Connecticut  was  150  feet  long,  26  feet  wide,  and 
about  200  tons  burthen.  She  had  a  ''square"  or 
cross-head  engine,  and  is  said  to  have  cost  $80,000. 
Neither  she  nor  the  Fulton  had  any  upper  saloon, 
state-rooms,  or  hurricane  deck.  Both  boats  had 
sails,  to  be  used  when  the  wind  favored,  and  when- 
ever a  voyage  was  made  without  hoisting  sail,  the 
captain  boasted  of  it  as  something  remarkable. 

Admiral  Preble  tells  the  following  romantic  inci- 
dent of  one  of  the  trips  of  the  Connecticut  : 

''As  she  approached  Nyaot  Point  one  June  morning  in 
1823,  two  skiffs  were  observed  making  for  the  steamer. 
The  occupants  seemed  to  signal  the  vessel  to  stop,  and 
such  interest  was  aroused  that  Captain  Bunker  steered 
towards  the  foremost  skiff  and  hailed  her.  There  was  re- 
turned no  answer,  but  from  the  rear  boat  came  oaths  and 
shouts,  from  which  those  on  the  steamer  gathered  that  the 
occupants  of  the  foremost  boat  were  runaways  in  pursuit 
of  some  Gretna  Green.  As  their  boat  came  within  a  few 
yards  of  the  steamer,  a  young  man  looked  up  and  said  : 
'Will  you  take  us  on  board,  sir?'  An  enthusiastic  re- 
sponse from  the  passengers  and  a  score  of  hands  lent  their 
aid.  Captain  Bunker  seemed  unconscious  of  what  was  going 
on,  but  tradition  says  that  the  instant  the  young  man's 
feet  touched  the  deck  of  the  steamer,  the  engineer  re- 
ceived an  order  to  'go  ahead  '  with  a  suddenness  that 
took  away  his  breath  ;  and  in  a  very  few  seconds  a  wide 
stretch  of  water  lay  between  the  steamer  and  the  empty 
boat." 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Fulton  was 


THE  OLD  SAILING  PACKETS. 


261 


the  first  steamboat  on  Narragansett  Bay.  The  ex- 
periment of  Ormsbee  and  Wilkinson  in  1792,  which 
has  been  described,  does  not  count  in  the  history  of 
the  practical  steamboat,  and  we  hear  nothing  fur- 
ther of  steam  navigation  in  the  waters  once  ruled 
by  King  Philip  until  1817.  In  May  of  that  year 
the  steamer  Firefly  (Captain  Smith)  arrived  at 
Newport  in  twenty-eight  hours  from  New  York. 
She  had  experienced  a  rough  sea  while  rounding 
Point  Judith,  which  came  near  sending  her  to  the 
bottom.  She  was  intended  as  a  regular  packet  be- 
tween Providence  and  Newport,  and  made  her  first 
trip  from  the  latter  to  the  former  city  on  the  28th 
of  May,  181  7,  being  three  hours  on  the  way.  She 
arrived  about  noon,  and  as  her  coming  had  been 
announced  by  a  sloop,  the  wharves  and  banks  of  the 
river  were  crowded  with  people  anxious  to  see  her. 

Her  dimensions  are  not  given,  but  she  is  de- 
scribed as  ''an  ugly  little  thing,  full  of  machinery, 
awkward  in  her  motions,  and  with  a  terrible 
wheeze."  On  the  28th  of  June,  the  Governor  and 
his  staff  went  in  the  Firefly  from  Providence  to 
Newport,  to  meet  President  Monroe,  and  escort 
him  to  Providence.  The  President  boarded  the 
boat  at  Bristol,  and  the  Firefly  with  her  distin- 
guished passenger  reached  Providence  about  nine 
in  the  evening.  July  26th  she  made  a  ''cherry  ex- 
cursion "  to  Fall  River,  at  two  dollars  a  head  for 
fare  and  dinner. 


262 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


The  opposition  that  Fulton  had  encountered 
when  he  started  the  Clermont  was  shown  to  the 
Firefly  by  the  packet-men  engaged  in  the  trade  be- 
tween Providence  and  New  York,  with  the  excep- 
tion that  no  attempts  seem  to  have  been  made  to 
destroy  the  innovation  by  running  her  down.  Any 
fast  sloop,  with  a  favorable  wind,  could  beat  her, 
even  though  she  spread  the  huge  square-sail  with 
which  she  was  provided.  The  packet  captains  used 
to  stand  on  the  Firefly's  wharf  at  Providence,  just 
before  she  started,  and  offer  to  carry  passengers  to 
Newport  for  twenty-five  cents  in  case  they  arrived 
there  ahead  of  the  Firefly,  and  for  nothing  if  they 
were  beaten  by  her.  By  this  kind  of  opposition 
they  rendered  her  occupation  unprofitable,  and  in 
less  than  four  months  she  retired  from  the  rei^ular 
passenger  business  between  Providence  and  New- 
port, and  devoted  her  energies  to  excursions. 

The  packets  of  those  days  were  finely-modelled 
sloops,  of  from  seventy  to  one  hundred  tons  meas- 
urement, and  had  comfortable  cabins  for  passengers. 
One  of  them.  The  Huntress,  occasionally  made  the 
voyage  between  New  York  and  Providence  in 
eighteen  hours,  but  sometimes,  when  adverse 
winds  blew,  she  was  a  week  on  the  way.  Fare,  in- 
clusive of  meals,  was  ten  dollars,  and  the  meals  in- 
cluded liquid  stimulants  during  breakfast  and  din- 
ner. There  was  a  weekly  service  of  packets  each 
way,  and  the  departure  of  a  packet  from  Provi- 


THE  BRISTOL, 


263 


dence  was  as  serious  an  affair  as  is  that  of  an  ocean 
steamer  to-day.  Passengers  were  accompanied  on 
board  by  their  friends,  there  were  solemn  leave- 
takings  with  copious  tears,  and  just  before  casting 
off  the  captain  brought  out  his  decanters,  and 
everybody  was  asked  to  drink  to  the  success  of 
the  voyage. 

The  packet  captains  opposed  the  Fulton  and 
Connecticut  in  1822  and  1823,  but  their  opposition 
did  not  succeed  as  in  the  case  of  the  Firefly. 
Steam  navigation  between  Narragansett  Bay  and 
New  York  was  firmly  established  and  has  been 
maintained  ever  since.  As  time  has  rolled  on  the 
steamers  have  increased  in  size  and  carrying  capaci- 
ty ;  contrast  with  the  Fulton  and  Connecticut  the 
Bristol  and  Pilgrim  of  the  present  Fall  River  line, 
which  perform  a  daily  service  each  way  between  Fall 
River  and  New  York  throughout  the  year,  and  an/ 
extra  service  daily  in  summer  between  New  York 
and  Newport.  They  may  be  regarded  as  the  best 
types  of  steamers  intended  for  combined  inland 
and  coast  naviration,  both  in  their  construction 
and  the  elaborate  character  of  their  fittings  through- 
out. 

The  Bristol  was  built  in  1867,  and  her  gross 
measurement  is  2,962  tons;  she  is  373  feet  in 
length,  83  feet  beam  over  all,  and  has  16  feet  depth 
of  hold.  Her  machinery  was  built  by  John  Roach 
&  Son,  and  her  hull  by  Wm.  H.  Webb. 


264 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


The  Pilgrim  was  built  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania, 
in  1882,  and  the  following  are  her  principal  dimen- 
isions  :  Length  on  deck,  390  feet;  beam  of  the  hull 
proper,  50  feet ;  beam  over  guards,  87.6  feet ;  depth 
of  hold  proper,  18.6  feet ;  depth  from  floor  to  top 
of  dome,  60  feet ;  measurement,  3,483  registered 
tons.  Her  motive  power  consists  of  a  vertical 
beam  engine,  with  a  cylinder  iio  inches  in  diame- 
ter; stroke  of  piston,  14  feet,  working  under  a 
maximum  steam  pressure  of  50  pounds  to  the 
square  inch.  She  has  twelve  boilers  made  of  steel, 
developing  in  all  5,500  horse-power. 

The  hull  of  the  Pilgrim  is  built  on  the  longitudi- 
nal bracket  system  throughout  ;  that  is,  she  is  a 
ship  within  a  ship,  and  has  103  water-tight  com- 
partments. It  would  be  impossible  to  sink  her  by 
staving  in  her  bottom.  Twenty-five  feet  from  her 
stem  is  the  water-tight  collision  bulkhead,  fifty  feet 
abaft  the  stem  is  another  bulkhead,  and  thirty  feet 
forward  of  her  stern  is  another  bulkhead,  all  of 
iron.  Her  engines  and  boilers  are  enclosed  in  iron 
bulkheads,  rendering  it  impossible  for  fire  fi^om 
boilers  or  kitchen  to  reach  any  other  part  of  the 
boat.  The  introduction  of  electricity  has  reduced 
the  chances  of  fire  to  the  most  infinitesimal  point, 
there  being  no  fire  in  any  part  of  the  vessel  except 
in  the  boiler-room  and  kitchen. 

The  electric  plant  "  on  the  Pilgrim  is  Edison's, 
and  consists  of  912  lamps,  one     L  "  and  two    K  " 


266 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


dynamos,  with  a  capacity  of  11,382  candle-power, 
and  two  Armington  and  Sims  engines,  one  8-^- x  10 
B  "  engine,  and  one  9^^  x  1 2  C  "  engine,  belted 
direct  to  the  dynamos.  Steam  is  furnished  by 
a  special  boiler  of  150-horse  power,  with  80  pounds 
pressure,  and  in  case  of  necessity  connections  can  be 
made  with  the  main  or  donkey  boilers. 

The  following  is  condensed  from  a  description  in 
''The  Fall  River  Line  Journal  "  : 

The  quarter-deck  is  29.4  feet  deep,  50  feet  wide,  and 
10.8  feet  in  height.  Its  floor  is  inlaid  in  cherry  and  maple, 
and  furnished  with  richly  carved  mahogany  library  chairs 
upholstered  in  maroon  leather.  Its  after  end  is  the  ladies' 
parlor  bulkhead,  and  its  forward  confines  is  marked  by 
the  grand  saloon  vestibule.  Its  sides  are  embellished  with 
alternate  panellings  of  exquisite  tintings  and  the  richest  of 
mahogany.  The  decorated  panels  in  the  wall  are  of  the 
Tuscan  style,  with  a  rich  blending  of  bronze  and  burnished 
gold.  The  mahogany  panels  are  of  the  richest  selections 
as  to  grain  and  color,  and  are  set  with  plate-glass  mirrors. 
A  jewelled  electrolier  adorns  the  quarter-deck,  and  the 
emerald,  ruby,  sapphire,  garnet,  and  amethyst  blend  their 
rich  tints  under  the  mellowing  light  of  electricity.  The 
semicircular  vestibule  leading  to  the  grand  staircase  has 
four  large  doors.  Through  these  doors  you  ascend  to  the 
grand  saloon,  or,  passing  beneath  the  staircase,  the 
descending  stairway  leads  to  the  dining  saloon.  The 
staircase  is  of  the  richest  mahogany,  is  broad,  of  easy  tread 
and  attractive  design,  and  leads  up  to  a  landing  where  a 
very  heavy  plate  mirror  gives  back  a  most  pleasing  effect. 
Stairs  lead  from  the  landing  to  each  side  of  the  saloon. 

Before  we  leave  the  deck  let  us  pass  aft  through  thq 


THE  PILGRIM. 


267 


saloons  leading  from  the  quarter-deck.  The  after  one  is 
the  ladies'  saloon.  Beneath  this  saloon,  reached  by  a 
staircase  in  the  centre,  is  the  ladies'  cabin  which  is  richly 
carpeted,  and  is  well  lighted  and  ventilated  by  large  dead- 
lights in  the  transom.  From  this  cabin  is  a  passage-way 
through  the  iron  bulkhead  and  into  the  dining  saloon. 
Ascending  to  the  main  deck,  passing  through  the  after 


Walking- Beam  of  the  Pilgrim. 

ladies'  saloon,  we  enter  the  ladies'  parlor,  which  is  70  feet 
long  and  the  w  idth  of  the  boat  (excepting  the  guards),  and 
contains  33  state-rooms  and  6  alcove  passage-ways  to  the 
guards.  The  parlor  is  a  most  luxuriantly  fitted-up  apart- 
ment, with  Wilton  carpets,  carved  mahogany  furniture 
covered  with  maroon  velvet,  gorgeous  electroliers,  rich 
centre  tables  and  "  conversation  "  chairs.  The  state-rooms 
are  large,  lofty,  and  exquisitely  upholstered  and  carpeted. 
To  outfit  the  Pilgrim  6,000  yards  of  carpeting  have  been 
used. 

The  grand  saloon  is  320  feet  in  length.    Its  dome 


268 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


roof  is  20.6  feet  from  the  saloon-deck,  and  is  280  feet  long. 
The  sides  of  the  saloon  are  9.3  feet  high,  and  of  the  gal- 
lery 6.7  feet  high.  This  grand  apartment  will  hold,  with  its 
gallery-balcony,  her  allowance  of  1,400  passengers,  with- 
out crowding,  a  gathering  which  would  require  over  23 
ordinary  railway  cars  to  seat.  The  general  style  of  finish 
on  the  quarter-deck  is  carried  out  in  the  grand  saloon,  the 
pilasters  being  decorated  with  ornamental  stucco  work, 
gilded  and  copper-bronzed,  and  tinted  in  the  most  chaste 
colors.  The  ceiling  overhead  and  under  the  gallery-deck 
is  frescoed  in  parti-colors.  In  this  grand  saloon  are  103 
state-rooms,  seven  bridal  rooms,  and  two  family  bridals, 
with  a  connecting  room.  The  bridal  rooms  each  have 
folding  bedsteads,  so  that  the  room  is  a  drawing-room 
until  the  time  of  retiring.  Every  state-room  is  furnished 
in  black  walnut,  with  ,  an  electric  light,  electric  call-bell, 
wash-stand  with  handsomely  decorated  basin  and  toilet 
set,  lace  curtains  and  berth  coverlets  of  handsome  design. 
Many  of  the  rooms  have  folding  upper  berths.  The  Pil- 
grim has  sleeping  accommodations  for  1,200  passengers. 

The  gallery-deck  contains  80  state-rooms  for  passen- 
gers ;  the  president's  room,  nearly  treble  the  size  of  the 
ordinary  rooms,  with  bathroom  attached  ;  the  captain's 
room,  two  rooms  for  the  pilots,  and  a  room  for  the  quar- 
termasters. Forward  of  this  is  the  pilot-house,  finished 
in  cherry,  with  inlaid  floors. 

The  grand  dining  hall  and  its  cabin  extend  from  the 
engine  bulkhead  to  the  after  watertight  bulkhead,  and 
contain  27  state-rooms,  with  three  berths  in  each  room. 
The  dining  hall  has  16  tables,  capable  of  seating  170  persons. 
It  is  a  spacious  apartment,  airy,  and  lighted  profusely. 
Forward  of  this  saloon  is  the  servants'  quarters,  where  54 
men  are  berthed  nightly." 

Contrast  the  magnificence  of  the  Pilgrim  with 


OTHER  ROUTES  ON  THE  SOUND. 


269 


the  meagre  accommodations  of  the  Fulton  and 
Connecticut,  and  then  bear  in  mind  that  the  price 
of  passage  to-day  is  less  than  half  the  cost  of  a 
ticket  in  1822.  Competition  occasionally  brings 
it  to  a  very  low  figure.  Tickets  are  sometimes 
sold  for  a  continuous  passage  between  Boston  and 
New  York  for  one  dollar,  including  a  berth  in  the 
general  cabin,  and  the  winter  rate  is  usually  three 
dollars. 

Other  steamboat  routes  on  Long  Island  Sound 
are  from  New  York  to  Stonington,  from  New  York 
to  New  London,  and  another  by  propellers  from 
New  York  to  Providence.  Then  there  are  routes 
from  New  York  to  New  Haven,  Bridgeport,  Nor- 
walk,  and  other  smaller  ports  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Sound,  as  well  as  to  several  places  on  the 
southern  shore.  All  these  lines  have  histories, 
but  none  of  them  are  so  closely  connected  with 
the  inauguration  of  steamboating  as  are  those 
whose  details  have  just  been  given. 

An  incident  of  1829  is  worthy  of  record  here. 
At  a  meeting  of  the  directors  of  the  Chancellor 
Livingston  Steam  Packet  Company  in  that  year  a 
resolution  was  adopted  prohibiting  the  stewards  of 
the  boats  from  putting  decanters  of  brandy  and 
other  spirits  on  the  table.  There  was  great  indig- 
nation at  their  action.  The  passengers  held  meet- 
ings and  protested,  and  some  of  the  newspapers 
sustained  them.     The  directors  found  it  necessary 


270 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


to  publish  a  letter  in  defence  of  the  resolution,  in 
which  they  set  forth  that  they  were  ''not  influenced 
by  petty  motives  of  economy  or  gain,  but  hoped  to 
do  a  little  to  aid  the  cause  of  reform."  The  letter 
closed  in  the  following  words  : 

''  The  tables  are  now  supplied  with  red  wines  of  good 
quality  and  pleasant  flavor,  as  well  as  a  good  tendency  in 
its  effects  upon  those  who  may  be  affected  by  the  motion 
of  the  boat.  In  addition  to  all  this,  whenever  any  person 
may  choose  to  order  brandy  or  spirits  from  a  belief  of  their 
necessity,  it  will  be  immediately  and  cheerfully  supplied 
from  the  bar,  and  the  gentleman  will  hear  no  more  about 
it  unless  he  pleases.*' 

This  concession  to  the  growing  feeling  in  favor 
of  temperance  was  not  long  in  finding  general  ap- 
proval, and  no  further  complaint  was  heard  from 
the  old-time  drinkers. 

From  Narragansett  Bay,  our  next  step  eastward 
will  be  to  the  Kennebec,  which  was  ascended  in 
18 1 6  by  the  steamboat  Alpha  —  a  long,  narrow, 
flat-bottomed  craft  of  fifteen  tons,  propelled  by  a 
screw  in  the  stern.  She  was  built  by  Jonathan 
Morgan,  of  Wiscasset,  Maine,  who  had  expected 
to  make  a  fortune  out  of  his  invention. 

According  to  the  accounts  which  have  been 
given,  the  Alpha  was  a  strange  afTair.  Her  boiler 
was  built  of  pine  plank,  hooped  stoutly  together 
with  iron  hoops,  and  about  the  size  of  a  molasses 
cask,  and  with  a  fire-box  of  iron  in  its  centre.  The 


FII^ST  STEAMBOATS  IN  MAINE. 


271 


engine  was  connected  to  the  propeller  by  an  end- 
less chain,  but  the  power  was  insufficient  to  stem 
the  current  of  the  river  at  more  than  a  snail's  pace. 
The  Alpha  ascended  the  Kennebec  to  Augusta  on 
her  first  trip.  She  landed  at  Hallowell,  where 
many  people  visited  her.  When  she  left  the 
wharf  to  continue  her  journey,  she  was  carried 
down  a  considerable  distance  before  she  got  suffi- 
cient headway  to  proceed  on  her  course.  Morgan's 
enterprise  was  unsuccessful,  and  after  vainly  trying 
to  raise  capital  for  a  steamboat  company,  he  turned 
his  attention  to  other  matters.  His  boat  was  sold 
by  a  constable  of  Wiscasset  at  public  vendue  "  for 
eighty-seven  dollars,  and  her  machinery  was  re- 
moved. The  waggish  purchaser  converted  the 
Alpha  into  a  fishing-vessel,  and  is  said  to  have  re- 
named her  the  Omega. 

The  first  advertisement  of  a  steamboat  in  Maine 
is  in  the  Portland  Argus,  of  August  13,  1822,  as 
follows  : 

The  steamboat  '  Kennebec  '  will  leave  Union  Wharf  at 
four  o'clock  for  North  Yarmouth,  to  spend  the  day.  Will 
return  on  Thursday  to  take  passengers  to  the  island  as 
usual.  If  required,  will  stop  at  Week's  Wharf  to  land  and 
receive  passengers.  Will  also,  should  sufficient  number  of 
passengers  apply,  go  to  Commencement  the  day  preced- 
ing, and  also  on  the  day  of  Commencement." 

A  local  poet  of  Portland  thus  writes  concerning 
the  steamboat : 


272 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


"  A  fig  for  all  your  clumsy  craft, 
Your  pleasure  boats  and  packets, 
The  steamboat  lands  you  safe  and  soon, 
At  Mansfield's,  Trott's,  and  Brackett's." 

The  Kennebec  was  an  old  flat-bottomed  craft,  in 
which  Captain  Seward  Porter  had  placed  a  steam 
engine  of  light  power,  in  order  to  fit  her  for  excur- 
sions in  the  bay.  He  made  money  by  the  enter- 
prise, and  early  in  18.24  went  to  New  York  to  pur- 
chase a  steamer  of  less  modest  aspirations.  The 
following  is  from  the  Portland  A^^gus,  of  July  8, 
1824: 

^'The  steamboat  'Patent,'  Captain  Seward  Porter,  ar- 
rived here  yesterday  in  four  days  from  New  York,  having 
touched  at  a  number  of  places  to  land  passengers.  She  is 
intended  to  ply  between  this  place  and  Boston,  is  strong 
and  commodious,  and  elegantly  fitted  for  passengers. 
Her  engine  has  been  proved,  is  of  superior  workmanship, 
and  propels  the  boat  about  ten  miles  an  hour.  From  the 
perseverance  of  Captain  Porter  we  have  no  doubt  but  he 
will  meet  with  good  encouragement,  and  find  it  profitable. 
We  wish  him  every  success." 

The  boat  was  described  in  a  report  to  her  stock- 
holders as  of  two  hundred  tons  burthen,  and  costing 
twenty  thousand  dollars.  She  had  no  hurricane 
deck,  and  was  quite  low  in  the  water  ;  her  boiler 
and  engines  were  below,  and  she  had  a  heavy  bal- 
ance-wheel half  above  her  deck,  and  an  arrangement 
for  disconnecting  the  machinery  from  the  wheels. 
All  her  cabins  were  below,  the  ladies'  cabin  being 


STEAM  NA  VIGA  TION  A  T  BOSTON, 


at  the  stern,  and  entered  by  passing  through  the 
gentlemen's  cabin.  The  Boston  Courier,  of  Au- 
gust 12,  1824,  mentions  her  arrival  in  seventeen 
hours  from  Portland,  with  seventeen  passengers. 
Fare  between  Boston  and  Portland  was  five  dollars, 
including  meals,  and  it  remained  at  that  figure  until 
reduced  by  competition.  For  some  time  boats  car- 
ried passengers  free  between  Boston  and  Portland, 
without  charge  for  meals  or  lodging. 

In  1826  there  were  three  or  four  boats  on  the 
coast  of  Maine.  One  of  them,  the  New  York,  was 
fitted  with  masts  and  sails  like  a  brig,  and  was  gen- 
era;lly  called  The  Steam-brig."  She  was  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1829,  but  happily  without  loss  of  life. 

Steam  navigation  at  Boston  began  in  181  7  with 
the  steamboat  Massachusetts,  of  230  tons  measure- 
ment and  30-horse  power.  She  was  intended 
to  run  between  Boston  and  Salem,  and  her 
owners  had  great  hopes  concerning  her.  She 
made  a  few  trial  trips  in  the  latter  part  of  June. 
On  the  fourth  of  July  she  left  Salem  at  8  a.m.  and 
reached  Boston  at  11  a.m.,  her  greatest  speed  be- 
ing eight  miles  an  hour.  In  the  afternoon  of 
the  same  day  she  took  a  party  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen  down  the  harbor — unquestionably  the 
first  fourth-of-July  steamboat  excursion  ever  known 
to  the  Bostonians. 

Her  machinery  was  defective,  and  on  two  or 
three  occasions  she  broke  down  when  on  excur- 


274 


l^OBERT  FULTON. 


sions,  and  her  passengers  had  to  find  their  way 
back  in  other  ways  than  by  steam.  She  ran  dur- 
ing the  summer  at  a  heavy  loss.  In  the  autumn 
she  was  sent  south  to  be  sold  and  was  wrecked 
on  the  voyage.  The  stage  companies  are  said  to 
have  been  active  in  their  opposition  to  her,  and 
much  of  the  distrust  which  existed  in  the  public 
mind  concerning  the  Massachusetts  was  fostered 
by  them. 

In  spite  of  the  failure  of  the  Massachusetts, 
another  and  laro-er  boat — the  Eaofle — ran  in  Bos- 
ton  harbor  as  an  excursion  boat  in  1818,  and  later 
she  was  plying  between  New  Bedford  and  Nan- 
tucket. She  seems  to  have  been  more  successful 
than  her  predecessor,  and  from  that  time  onward 
Boston  was  never  unprovided  with  steam  facilities, 
unless  at  rare  periods,  or  when  the  harbor  was 
sealed  with  ice.  A  few  years  after  the  advent  of  the 
Eagle,  boats  were  sent  from  New  York  to  ply  be- 
tween Boston  and  Portland.  The  service  between 
these  ports  was  at  first  weekly,  then  semi-weekly, 
and  afterward  daily  each  way.  In  time  it  was  ex- 
tended to  Eastport,  and  between  1848  and  1850  the 
coast  of  Maine  was  provided  with  frequent  and 
rapid  communication  with  the  New  England 
capital. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


Early  steamboats  on  the  Clyde,  Thames,  Humber,  and  in  other  British 
waters — The  Comet  and  Enterprise — First  steamboat  at  London — 
Opposition  of  the  Watermen — Oldest  steamboat  in  existence — Steam- 
boats in  Canada  and  Java  in  1809  and  1 8 10. 

WE  will  now  leave  American  waters,  and,  with 
a  single  bound,  carry  ourselves  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  back  to  a  time  before  the  death  of 
Fulton.  Steamers  are  not  yet  traversing  the  ocean, 
and  our  journey  of  three  thousand  miles  over  the 
broad  waters  will  be  made  by  sail  in  the  old  way, 
or  on  the  speedier  wings  of  imagination. 

Allusion  has  been  made  in  Chapter  V.  to  the  ex- 
periments of  Miller,  Taylor,  and  Symington  in 
Scotland,  and  to  those  of  the  Marquis  de  Jouffroy 
in  France,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury and  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth.  Another 
inventor  deserves  mention  here,  though  he  never 
seems  to  have  gone  so  far  as  to  make  a  working 
model  of  his  proposed  vessel. 

According  to  the  Repository  of  Arts,"  volume 
X.,  one  Edward  Thomason  laid  before  the  British 
Admiralty,  in  1796,  a  detailed  description  of  a  fire- 
ship  for  naval  purposes.     It  had  vertical  wheels  at 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


the  sides,  propelled  by  steam-engines,  and  was  in- 
tended to  move  without  any  person  on  board  in 
whatever  direction  it  was  started.  Thus  propelled, 
it  was  to  enter  an  enemy's  harbor,  and,  by  means 
of  clock-work,  explode  several  barrels  of  gun- 
powder, by  which  the  enemy's  shipping  would  be 
set  on  fire  and  destroyed."  The  same  idea  is  car- 
ried out  to-day  in  the  form  of  torpedo,  which  is 
directed  from  shore  or  from  a  ship  by  means  of 
electricity,  and  exploded  through  the  same  agency. 

The  English  Monthly  Magazine  for  July,  1797, 
contains  the  following  : 

Lately  the  Newton-Common,  in  Lancashire,  a  vessel 
heavily  laden  with  copper  slag,  passed  along  the  Sankey 
Canal  without  the  aid  of  haulers  or  rowers,  the  oars  per- 
forming eighteen  strokes  a  minute  by  the  application  of 
steam  only.  After  a  course  of  ten  miles,  the  vessel  re- 
turned the  same  evening  by  the  same  means  to  St. 
Helen's,  whence  she  had  set  out.  This  ingenious  dis- 
covery by  the  original  form  and  motion  of  the  oars  may 
be  ranked  among  the  most  useful  of  modern  inventions, 
and,  in  particular,  promises  the  highest  benefits  to  inland 
navigation.'* 

The  same  publication,  in  1801,  gives  an  account 
of  an  experiment  on  the  Thames  in  January  of  that 
year,  by  Messrs.  Hunter  &  Dickinson,  for  propel- 
ling a  boat  by  steam.  It  says  :  The  performance 
was  very  creditable  to  them,  and  exceeded  any  thing 
ever  before  accomplished  ;  the  vessel  was  moved 
at  the  rate  of  three  miles  an  hour  through  the 


EARLY  STEAMBOATS  IN  BRITISH  WATERS,  27/ 

water."  Another  experiment  in  July  of  the  same 
year  moved  a  barge  at  the  rate  of  two  and  a  half 
miles  an  hour. 

The  boat  of  Lord  Dundas,  mentioned  in  Chap- 
ter v.,  appears  to  have  been  the  first  steam  tow- 
boat  ever  intended,  built,  and  tised  for  towing,  and 
she  fell  just  a  little  short  of  being  a  practical  suc- 
cess. Her  machinery  is  still  in  existence,  and  was 
exhibited  in  London  a  few  years  ago. 

Nothing  further  seems  to  have  been  done  in  the 
interest  of  steam  navigation  in  Great  Britain  until 
ten  years  after  the  failure  of  the  Charlotte  Dundas 
and  five  years  after  the  Clermont  had  successfully 
plowed  the  waters  of  the  Hudson,  and  taken  her 
place  as  a  regular  packet  between  New  York  and 
Albany.  Henry  Bell,  of  Helensburgh,  a  watering- 
place  on  the  river  Clyde,  where  he  kept  a  hotel 
and  bathing  establishment,  opened  a  correspond- 
ence with  Mr.  Fulton,  and,  on  learning  of  the 
success  of  steam  navigation  in  America,  determined 
to  establish  i*  in  Scotland. 

Bell  caused  several  models  of  a  steamboat  to  be 
made,  and  finally  obtained  one  that  suited  him. 
He  contracted  with  John  Wood  &  Co.,  ship- 
builders at  Glasgow,  to  build  a  steam-vessel  after 
the  model  he  selected  ;  it  was  forty  feet  long  and 
ten  feet  six  inches  beam,  and  was  propelled  by  a 
Watt  engine  on  the  ''bell-crank''  principle,  as  it 
was  then  known.     The  fire  was  on  the  outside  of 


278 


ROBERT  FULTON: 


the  boiler,  and  the  furnace  was  inclosed  by  brick- 
work to  prevent  the  destruction  of  the  boat  by  a 
conflagration.  The  boiler  was  on  one  side  of  the 
engine,  and  the  funnel  was  bent  so  as  to  carry  it  up 
to  the  centre  of  the  boat,  where  it  was  utilized  as  a 
mast  for  spreading  a  sail  when  the  wind  favored. 

The  boat  was  named  the  ''Comet,"  not  in  con- 
sequence of  her  meteoric  speed,  but  because  she  was 
built  in  i8i  I,  which  has  been  mentioned  heretofore 
as  the  year  of  the  comet.  Her  speed  was  about 
five  miles  an  hour ;  she  was  of  twenty-five  tons 
measurement,  and  her  engine  is  said  to  have  been 
of  three-horse  power.  She  made  her  first  trip  in 
January,  1812,  and  was  profitably  employed  as  a 
passenger  boat  during  the  entire  summer.  The  fol- 
lowing is  Mr.  Bell's  advertisement  concerning  her  : 

Steam  Passage  Boat — The  Comet — Between  Glas- 
gow, Greenock,  and  Helensburgh  ;  for  passengers  only. 
The  subscriber  having  at  much  expense  fitted  up  a  hand- 
some vessel  to  ply  upon  the  river  Clyde  between  Glasgow 
and  Greenock,  to  sail  by  the  power  of  wind,  air,  and  steam, 
he  intends  that  the  vessel  shall  leave  the  Broomielaw  on 
Tuesdays,  Thursdays,  and  Saturdays,  about  mid-day,  or 
at  such  hour  thereafter  as  may  answer  from  the  state  of 
the  tide  ;  and  to  leave  Greenock  on  Mondays,  Wednesdays, 
and  Fridays,  in  the  morning,  to  suit  the  tide. 

^'  The  terms  are  for  the  present  fixed  at  4^.  for  the  best 
cabin  and  3^.  for  the  second  ;  but,  beyond  these  rates, 
nothing  is  to  be  allowed  to  servants  or  any  other  person 
employed  about  the  vessel. 


EARLY  STEAMBOATS  TV  BRITISH  WATERS.  279 


The  subscriber  continues  his  establishment  at  Helens- 
burgh Baths  the  same  as  for  years  past,  and  a  vessel  will  be 
in  readiness  to  convey  passengers  in  the  Comet  from 
Greenock  to  Helensburgh. 

Passengers  by  the  Comet  will  receive  information  of 
the  hours  of  sailing  by  applying  at  Mr.  Housten's  office, 
Broomielaw,  or  Mr.  Thomas  Blackney's,  East  Quay  Head, 
Greenock.  Henry  Bell. 

Helensburgh  Baths,  A\\^.  5,  1812." 


The  "  Comet,"  1812. 

Greenock  is  about  twenty-seven  miles  from 
Glasgow  by  the  river,  and  as  the  Comet  made  only 
three  round  trips  weekly  between  the  two  places, 
she  could  not  have  been  hard  pushed.  James 
Watt,  the  inventor  of  the  form  of  the  steam-engine 
that  bears  his  name,  was  born  at  Greenock,  and  in 
1838  a  marble  statue  of  him  was  erected  there  by 
public  subscription.   Helensburgh  is  nearly  opposite 


IWBERT  FULTON-. 


Greenock,  and  is  now  connected  with  it  by  a  steam 
ferry. 

Admiral  Preble  says  the  Comet  was  wrecked  in 
1825  on  a  return  trip  from  the  Western  Highlands, 
and  many  of  her  passengers  Vv^ere  drowned.  He 
adds  that  Bell  became  as  great  a  wreck  as  his  ves- 
sel, and  the  Clyde  trustees,  out  of  gratitude,  settled 
upon  him  an  annuity  of  one  hundred  pounds  ster- 
ling, which  he  enjoyed  until  his  death  in  1830. 

As  the  success  of  the  Clermont  led  to  competi- 
tion in  New  York  waters,  so  did  that  of  the  Comet 
on  the  Clyde.  Bell  had  employed  an  engineer 
named  Thompson  to  assist  in  making  the  plans  for 
the  Comet ;  they  quarrelled,  and  Thompson  en- 
gaged Mr.  Wood,  the  builder  of  the  Comet,  to 
construct  another  boat,  which  was  fifty-one  feet 
keel,  twelve  feet  beam,  and  five  feet  deep.  Her 
measurement  was  about  thirty-three  tons,  and  her 
engine  ten-horse  power.  She  was  named  the  Eliza- 
beth, and  her  performance  is  thus  described  by  her 
owner : 

^'  The  Elizabeth  was  started  for  passengers  on  the  9th 
of  March,  181 3,  and  has  continued  to  run  from  Glasgow 
to  Greenock  daily,  leaving  Glasgow  in  the  morning  and 
returning  the  same  evening.  The  passage,  which  is 
twenty-seven  miles,  has  been  made,  with  a  hundred  pas- 
sengers on  board,  in  something  less  than  four  hours,  and 
in  favorable  circumstances  in  two  and  three  quarters. 
The  Elizabeth  has  sailed  eighty-one  miles  in  one  day,  at 
an  average  of  7tine  miles  an  hour.    The  Elizabeth  meas- 


EARLY  STEAMBOATS  I  AT  BRITISH  WATERS. 


281 


ures  aloft  fifty-eight  feet  ;  the  best  cabin  is  twenty-one 
feet  long,  eleven  feet  three  inches  at  amidships,  and  nine 
feet  four  inches  aft,  seated  all  round,  and  covered  with 
handsome  carpeting.  A  sofa  clothed  with  maroon  is 
placed  at  one  end  of  the  cabin,  and  gives  the  whole  a  warm 
and  cheerful  appearance.  There  are  twelve  small  win- 
dows, each  finished  with  maroon  curtains,  with  tassels, 
fringes,  and  velvet,  cornices  ornamented  with  gilt  orna- 
ments, having  altogether  a  rich  effect.  Above  the  sofa 
there  is  a  large  mirror  suspended,  and  on  each  side  book- 
shelves are  placed,  containing  a  collection  of  the  best 
authors,  for  the  amusement  and  edification  of  those  who 
may  avail  themselves  of  them  during  the  passage.  Other 
amusements  are  likewise  to  be  had  on  board. 

The  engine  stands  amidships,  and  requires  a  consid- 
erable space  in  length  and  all  the  breadth  of  the  vessel. 
The  forecastle,  which  is  rather  small,  is  about  eleven  feet 
six  inches  by  nine  feet  six  inches  ;  not  quite  so  comfort- 
able as  the  after  one,  but  well  calculated  for  a  cold  day, 
and  by  no  means  disagreeable  on  a  warm.  All  the 
windows  in  both  cabins  are  made  in  such  a  way  as  to  shift 
up  and  down  like  those  of  a  coach,  admitting  a  very  free 
circulation  of  fresh  air.  From  the  height  of  the  roofs  of 
both  cabins,  which  are  about  seven  feet  four  inches,  they 
will  be  extremely  pleasant  and  healthful  in  the  summer 
months  for  those  who  may  favor  the  boat  in  parties  of 
pleasure. 

^'Already  the  public  advantages  of  this  mode  of  convey- 
ance have  been  generally  acknowledged  ;  indeed,  it  may 
without  exaggeration  be  said  that  the  intercourse  through 
the  medium  of  steamboats  between  Glasgow  and  Green- 
ock has,  comparatively  speaking,  brought  those  places 
ten  or  twelve  miles  nearer  each  other.  In  most  cases  the 
passages  are  made  in  the  same  time  as  by  the  coaches  ;  and 


282 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


they  have  been,  in  numerous  instances,  done  with  greater 
rapidity.  In  comparing  the  comfortableness  of  these  con- 
veyances, the  preference  will  be  given  decidedly  to  the 
steamboat.  Besides  all  this,  a  great  saving  of  expense  is 
produced ;  the  fare  in  the  best  cabin  being  only  four 
shillings,  and  in  the  inferior  one,  two  shillings  and  six- 
pence, whereas  the  inside  of  a  coach  costs  not  less  than 
twelve  shillings  and  the  outside  eight  shillings." 

The  greater  speed  of  the  Elizabeth  compared 
with  that  of  the  Comet  caused  her  to  be  the  favor- 
ite, and  she  is  said  to  have  been  much  more  profit- 
able to  her  owners  than  was  her  predecessor.  One 
account  says  the  Comet  was  never  a  remunerative 
boat,  as  the  competition  began  before  she  had  made 
any  appreciable  return  for  her  cost. 

A  third  steamer,  the  Clyde,  was  built  the  same 
year  (1813)  by  Mr.  Wood  for  Mr.  Robinson,  of 
Port  Glasgow.  She  was  76  feet  long  on  deck, 
about  14  feet  beam,  measured  75  tons,  and  had  an 
engine  of  14-horse  power.  Her  speed  is  said  to 
have  been  six  miles  an  hour. 

While  the  Clyde  was  on  the  stocks,  a  joint-stock 
company  for  steam  navigation — the  first  ever  organ- 
ized in  Great  Britain — was  formed  at  Glasgow  for 
the  transportation  of  both  passengers  and  freight. 
Its  first  boat  was  the  Glasgow,  of  72  feet  long,  15 
feet  beam,  74  tons  measurement,  and  with  engines 
of  16-horse  power.  Afterwards  she  was  lengthened 
by  adding  five  feet  to  her  bow  which  increased  her 


EARLY  STEAMBOATS  IN  BRITISH  WATERS,  283 


speed  considerably.  She  was  launched  late  in  1813 
and  was  not  in  service  until  the  following  year. 

The  next  Clyde-built  steamer  was  the  Dumbar- 
ton Castle,  in  181 5,  81  tons,  107  feet  long,  17  feet 
beam,  and  engines  of  32-horse  power.  She  ran  to 
Rothesay,and  in  the  following  year  went  through  the 
Kyles  of  Bute  and  up  Lochfyne  to  Inveraray,  mak- 
ing the  trip  in  sixteen  hours,  which  was  then  consid- 
ered something  extraordinary. 

The  Britannia,  somewhat  smaller  than  the  Dum- 
barton Castle,  was  built  in  181 5,  and  the  Rob 
Roy,  also  smaller,  in  181 8.  The  latter  was  the 
first  steamer  to  cross  the  Channel  to  Belfast.  The 
Robert  Bruce,  90  tons  measurement,  94  feet  long, 
18  feet  beam,  and  i  r  feet  deep,  was  built  in  18 18, 
and  was  the  first  steamer  to  run  between  Glasgow 
and  Liverpool. 

From  this  time  forward  the  business  of  buildinor 
steamers  on  the  Clyde  progressed  rapidly.  At 
present  a  considerable  part  of  the  river  front  be- 
tween Greenock  and  Glasgow  is  occupied  by  ship- 
yards, and  as  many  as  two  hundred  steamers  have 
been  built  there  in  a  single  year.  In  the  foundries 
and  machine-shops  of  Glasgow  from  five  to  eight 
thousand  men  are  employed  in  the  construction  of 
marine  steam-engines,  and  there  is  a  proportionate 
number  in  the  ship-yards  where  the  hulls  are  built. 
The  Clyde  ship-yards  may  justly  be  considered  the 
first  in  the  world.     y\ll  the  fine  packets  of  the 


284 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Cunard  Company  were  built  there,  and  so  were 
many  other  steamers  that  have  made  a  reputation 
for  speed  and  safety. 

With  the  estabHshment  of  Hues  from  Glasgow  to 
Belfast  and  Liverpool  we  will  leave  the  Clyde  for 
the  present  and  turn  our  attention  elsewhere. 

In  1818  a  steamer  was  launched  at  Manchester 
and  another  at  Bristol  ;  in  18 14  one  was  in  opera- 
tion on  the  Humber,  and  in  December  of  that  year 
the  first  steamer  on  the  Thames  gave  the  initial 
turn  of  her  wheels  on  the  canal  at  Limehouse. 
The  boatmen  made  a  keen  opposition  to  the  inno- 
vation, and  she  was  taken  elsewhere  after  a  few 
weeks.  But  very  soon  other  boats  were  running  at 
London,  and  the  Company  of  watermen  found  it 
useless  to  try  to  stop  them. 

Extracts  from  the  papers  and  other  publications 
of  the  time  show  that  the  builders  of  boats  were 
everywhere  busy.  By  the  beginning  of  181 5  there 
were  five  steamboats  on  the  Thames,  the  best  of 
them  being  the  Thames,  of  fourteen-horse  power  ; 
she  was  built  at  Glasgow  and  was  originally  called 
the  Argyle,  her  name  being  changed  when  she 
was  sent  to  London. 

Cleland's  ''Annals  of  Glasgow"  says  that  be- 
tween the  years  181 2-1 5,  inclusive,  twenty  steam- 
boats of  various  sizes  were  built  at  Glasgow  and 
its  vicinity.  Of  these  boats,  the  Margary  went  to 
London  in  18 14,  the  Argyle  in  181 5,  and  the  Cale- 


EARLY  STEAMBOATS  IN  BRTTISIT  WATERS.  285 


donia  and  Greenock  in  1816.  Two  of  the  steam- 
boats ran  regularly  between  London  and  Margate 
during  the  bathing  season. 

The  British  Naval  Ch^^oiiicle  for  July,  18 15, 
says:  ''The  'Thames'  steam  yacht  is  said  lately 
to  have  accomplished  a  voyage  of  fifteen  hundred 
miles.  She  twice  crossed  St.  George's  Channel, 
and  sailed  round  Land's  End,  and  is  the  first  steam 
vessel  that  ever  traversed  those  seas.  The  advan- 
tages of  a  vessel  enabled  to  proceed  either  by  sail 
or  steam  or  both  united,  must  be  sufficiently  obvi- 
ous, and  especially  in  the  certainty  of  reaching  its 
place  of  destination  in  a  given  time." 

During  her  voyage  the  Thames  had  a  narrow  es- 
cape from  being  wrecked.  She  was  being  driven 
on  a  lee  shore  by  a  strong  gale.  Her  captain  put 
her  head  to  windward  and  steamed  directly  into  the 
teeth  of  the  gale  at  the  rate  of  three  miles  an  hour, 
thus  saving  the  boat.  She  stopped  at  Dublin  and 
Portsmouth.  At  the  latter  place  she  attracted 
much  attention,  and  so  numerous  were  the  boats 
around  her,  that  it  was  necessary  for  the  captain 
of  the  port  to  send  a  guard  to  preserve  order.  A 
naval  court-martial  adjourned  its  session  in  order 
to  visit  her,  and  one  day  (the  10th  of  June)  the 
port-admiral  sent  his  band  and  a  guard  of  marines 
on  board,  and  followed  soon  after  in  person  accom- 
panied by  three  admirals,  eighteen  post-captains, 
and  a  large  party  of  ladies.     With  her  distin- 


286 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


guished  visitors  the  boat  made  an  excursion 
around  the  harbor  and  to  the  Isle  of  Wight. 
The  naval  officers  expressed  themselves  highly 
pleased  with  the  steamer,  and  some  of  them  pre- 
dicted that  steam  would  soon  be  employed  for  pro- 
pelling ships  of  war. 

A  log  of  the  voyage  was  kept  by  Mr.  Weld,  a 
passenger  from  Dublin  to  London,  and  from  this 
log  an  account  was  condensed  and  published  in 
Chambers's  Journal,  in  April,  1857.  Mr.  Weld 
says  the  boat  steamed  seven  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
miles  in  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  and  a  half 
hours,  with  an  expenditure  of  one  ton  of  coal  for 
every  hundred  miles.  Whenever  they  passed  a  ship 
the  sailors  mounted  the  rigging  or  crowded  the  rail 
to  look  at  the  novelty,  and  sometimes  their  remarks 
were  the  reverse  of  complimentary.  The  harbor- 
master of  Plymouth  had  never  seen  a  steamboat, 
and  was  as  much  astonished  at  the  strange  vessel 
as  a  child  with  a  new  plaything.  In  ascending  the 
Thames  they  passed  every  thing  in  the  river,  in- 
cluding all  the  fast-sailing  pleasure  boats.  East  In- 
diamen,  and  other  craft. 

Sir  Rowland  Hill,  who  obtained  celebrity  for  his 
reforms  in  the  post-office,  mentions  in  his  autobiog- 
raphy the  steamboat  plying  between  London  and 
Margate  in  181 5.  On  the  third  of  July  of  that 
year  he  and  his  brother  ''went  to  see  the  steam- 
boat come  in  from  London  ;  generally  performing 


STEAMBOATS  IN  CANADA. 


287 


the  voyage  in  about  twelve  hours.  It  is  surpris- 
ing," he  continues,  *'how  most  people  are  preju- 
diced against  this  packet.  Some  say  that  it  can- 
not sail  against  the  wind  if  it  is  high,  but  when  it 
entered  the  harbor  at  Margate,  the  wind  and  tide 
were  both  against  it,  and  the  former  rather  rough 
— yet  I  saw  it  stem  them  both.  There  was  a  great 
crowd  and  much  enthusiasm,  though  carpers  pre- 
dicted failure  and  sneered  at  the  '  smoke-jacks.'  " 

Probably  the  oldest  existing  steamboat  in  the 
world,  though  not  in  use,  is  the  Industry — the 
seventh  steamer  on  the  Clyde,  which  was  built  in 
1814.  She  was  fifty-four  tons  measurement,  and 
ran  successfully  for  some  years.  By  an  accident  she 
was  sunk  in  the  East  India  docks  at  Greenock, 
where  she  lay  until  1872,  when  she  was  floated  and 
restored  to  her  old  condition  as  nearly  as  possible. 
In  1876  she  was  presented  by  her  owners,  Steele 
&  Company,  to  the  Glasgow  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, to  be  preserved  as  a  memorial  of  the  early 
days  of  steam  navigation  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
As  before  stated,  the  oldest  steamboat  engines  in 
existence  are  those  of  the  Charlotte  Dundas  con- 
structed in  1801,  and  of  Col.  Stevens'  boat  at  Ho- 
boken,  built  and  operated  in  1804. 

Before  the  establishment  of  steam  navigation  on 
the  Clyde  and  in  other  British  home  waters,  steam- 
boats were  in  successful  operation  in  two  of  the  Brit- 
ish colonies  on  opposite  sides  of  the  world  from  each 


288 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Other.  In  1809  the  steamboat  Accommodation 
made  the  passage  from  Montreal  to  Quebec  in 
sixty-six  hours,  of  which  thirty  hours  were  passed 
at  anchor.  She  was  85  feet  long  on  deck,  75  feet 
keel,  and  had  berths  for  twenty  passengers  in  her 
cabins.  The  price  of  passage  was  nine  dollars  up 
the  river  and  eight  dollars  down,  which  included 
meals  and  lodgings.  Her  first  trip  was  made  with 
ten  passengers. 

In  the  spring  of  1813a  second  boat,  the  Swift- 
sure,  was  launched  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  began 
running  between  Montreal  and  Quebec.  Her  meas- 
urements were  130  feet  keel,  140  feet  deck,  and  34 
feet  beam,  and  she  made  the  voyage  from  Montreal 
to  Quebec  in  twenty-two  hours,  in  face  of  a  strong 
wind  from  the  east.  That  her  owners  hesitated  to 
defy  the  breezes  is  shown  by  her  advertisement  in 
the  Quebec  Mercuryy  which  announced  that  the 
boat  would  ''sail  as  the  wind  and  passengers  may 
suit." 

In  181 1  Java  was  in  the  hands  of  the  English, 
where  it  remained  until  18 16,  when  it  was  ceded  to 
Holland,  which  formerly  owned  it,  and  has  re- 
mained in  Dutch  control  ever  since.  In  the  latter 
part  of  1 8 10,  or  early  in  181 1,  some  English  mer- 
chants at  Batavia  built  a  steamboat,  the  ''Van  der 
Capellan,"  which  they  leased  to  the  government,  at 
the  handsome  remuneration  of  ten  thousand  dollars 
a  month.    She  was  in  that  employ  for  two  years, 


STEAMBOATS  IN  JAVA. 


289 


and  was  of  great  service  in  the  transportation  of 
soldiers  and  war  material  from  one  part  of  the 
island  to  another.  After  the  expiration  of  the 
government  contract,  she  was  in  private  hands  for 
some  years,  and  again  as  a  government  boat.  She 
was  used  as  a  dredging  boat  about  1822,  and  later 
as  a  gunboat,  and  was  lost  in  a  gale  in  the  Java 
seas  after  a  career  of  twenty  years. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


Further  history  of  steam  navigation  in  foreign  waters — Steamers  in  Russia, 
France,  and  other  countries — First  steamer  on  Lake  Baikal,  Siberia — 
Inauguration  of  steam-tovving — Description  of  a  steam-collier — Steam 
navigation  to  Belfast,  Dublin,  and  Havre — New  steamers  between 
Holyhead  and  Dublin — David  Napier — Present  steam  fleet  of  Great 
Britain. 

ACCORDING  to  the  Dictionnaire  Larousse," 
Steamboats  were  introduced  into  France  in 
1816,  but  their  success  was  not  sufficiently  demon- 
strated at  the  outset,  and  steam  navigation  did  not 
begin  to  develop  fairly  until  1825.  The  same  dic- 
tionary awards  to  Fulton  the  honor  of  building  the 
first  successful  steamboat,  and  does  not  seek,  like 
most  of  the  English  encyclopedias,  to  ignore  that 
inventor  and  give  the  distinction  to  a  Briton. 

Steam  navigation  was  adopted  in  Russia  soon 
after  its  success  on  the  Clyde.  Mr.  Baird,  an  Eng- 
lish engineer  in  the  employ  of  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment, built  a  small  steamboat  of  four-horse  power 
in  181 5,  with  which  he  made  a  trip  from  St. 
Petersburg  to  Cronstadt  and  back  without  accident. 
In  1 816  he  built  a  larger  boat  of  twenty-horse 
power  and  fitted  for  carrying  passengers  between 
those  cities,  and  in  the  summer  of  that  year  it  was 
in  successful  operation. 


STEAMERS  IN  RUSSIA. 


291 


Russia  is  the  land  of  monopolies,  and  Mr.  Baird 
received  from  the  government  a  monopoly  for 
twenty  years  on  the  waters  around  St.  Petersburg 
for  all  steamboats  for  commercial  purposes.  In  the 
same  year  the  government  built  a  steamboat  of 
thirty-two-horse  power  at  its  yard  at  Ishora.  It 
was  designed  as  a  transport,  and  was  appropriately 
named  the  Rapid,"  though  doubtless  in  these  days 
it  would  be  called  Slow."  Several  other  steam 
transports  were  built  at  this  and  other  yards,  and 
in  1826  the  Russian  Government  built  its  first  steam 
gunboat.  Steamboats  were  placed  on  the  rivers  of 
Russia  at  varying  dates  between  1820  and  1840. 
In  1844  there  were  four  steamboats  on  the  Caspian 
Sea  and  others  on  the  Black  Sea ;  most  of  them, 
if  not  all,  having  engines  from  the  Baird  works  at 
St.  Petersburg. 

In  1843  enterprising  merchant  of  Irkoutsk, 
Eastern  Siberia,  built  a  steamboat  for  the  naviga- 
tion of  Lake  Baikal.  The  hull  was  built  on  the 
shore  of  the  lake,  while  the  engines  and  boilers 
were  made  at  the  Baird  works  and  transported  over- 
land four  thousand  miles  from  St.  Petersburg  in 
wagons  and  sleighs.  Mr.  Baird  sent  an  engineer 
to  superintend  the  work,  but  all  the  labor  on  the 
hull,  and  of  putting  the  engines  in  place,  was  per- 
formed by  Siberian  peasants  who  had  never  seen 
any  thing  of  the  kind.  The  boat  crossed  the  lake 
for  the  first  time  in  a  strong  gale,  which  she  faced 


292 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


SO  boldly  as  to  astonish  everybody  who  looked  at 
her  from  the  shore.  When  the  natives  on  the  east- 
ern shore  saw  the  monster  approaching  they  fled  in 
dismay,  and  could  not  for  some  time  be  induced  to 
come  back.  The  boat  was  of  thirty-two-horse 
power,  and  was  called  the  Emperor  Nicholas. 

Returning  to  Liverpool  and  to  18 16,  we  fmd 
that  the  first  steam  ferry-boat  built  there  was  in 
that  year,  and  was  called  the  Etna.  It  is  probable 
that  her  construction  was  begun  in  the  previous 
year,  as  the  records  show  that  she  commenced  her 
services  in  April,  18 16,  between  Liverpool  and 
Traumere.  She  was  sixty-three  feet  long  and 
twenty-eight  feet  broad  ;  she  had  a  paddle-wheel  in 
the  centre,  and  her  ends  were  connected  by  strong 
beams.  The  Etna  may  be  regarded  as  the  pioneer 
of  the  vast  fleet  of  small  steamboats  that  ply  on 
the  Mersey  between  Liverpool,  Birkenhead,  and 
other  points,  and  render  the  passenger  arriving 
from  America  exceedingly  miserable  with  their  lack 
of  accommodations.  Landing  or  embarking  at 
Liverpool  is  a  wretched  beginning  or  ending  of  a 
transatlantic  voyage.  The  steam-tenders  provided 
by  the  great  companies  are  a  disgrace  to  modern 
civilization  and  its  locomotive  triumphs.  Save  in 
the  matter  of  speed  and  dimensions,  these  Liver- 
pool boats  of  to-day  are  probably  no  improvement 
upon  the  Etna  and  her  immediate  followers. 

In  the  same  year  that  the  Etna  began  her  work 


INAUGURATION  OF  STEAM  TOWING, 


in  the  Mersey  the  EngUsh  Channel  was  crossed 
from  Brighton  to  Havre  by  steam  for  the  first 
time.  The  feat  was  accomplished  by  the  steam- 
boat Majestic,  which  was  built  at  Ramsgate  and 
had  engines  of  twenty-five-horse  power.  She  car- 
ried two  hundred  passengers,  who  must  have  been 
packed  very  closely,  but  they  seem  to  have  enjoyed 
their  journey,  which  was  made  without  accident. 
The  Majestic  passed  several  of  the  sailing  packets, 
and  reduced  the  time  required  for  the  trip  more 
than  one  half.  This  single  boat  demonstrated  the 
superiority  of  steamboats  over  sailing  packets,  and 
in  a  very  few  years  the  passenger  business  had 
gone  over  to  the  steamers,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  conservatives  who  had  fears  regarding  the 
safety  of  boats  with  boilers  and  huge  fires. 

In  October,  18 16,  the  ship  Harlequin  was  towed 
out  of  the  Mersey  by  the  steamer  Charlotte,  which 
had  been  built  as  a  passenger  boat  to  ply  between 
Liverpool  and  Eastham.  A  Liverpool  tradition 
says  the  Charlotte  was  the  first  steam  tow-boat, 
and  there  is  no  positive  proof  to  the  contrary.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  steamboat  of  Jonathan 
Hulls,  in  1736,  and  the  Charlotte  Dundas,  in  1801, 
were  intended  for  towing  purposes.  The  former 
never  went  beyond  the  plans  of  the  architect,  and 
the  latter  was  abandoned  as  a  failure. 

The  inauguration  of  steam  towing  has  had  sev- 
eral claimants,  and  it  is  not  very  easy  to  reconcile 


294 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


them.  Mr.  Rennie,  who  planned  the  breakwater 
at  Plymouth,  was  an  ''advising  engineer'' to  the 
Admiralty  and  an  early  advocate  of  the  application 
of  steam-power  to  ships  of  war.  In  1819  he  en- 
deavored to  demonstrate  the  feasibility  of  his  theo- 
ries by  hiring,  at  his  own  expense,  the  steamer 
Eclipse,  and  employing  her  to  tow  a  seventy-four- 
gun  ship  (the  Hastings)  from  Woolwich  to  Graves- 
end.  The  feat  was  successfully  accomplished,  as 
the  Hastings  was  moved  against  the  tide  without 
difficulty.  Several  naval  officers  who  had  previ- 
ously opposed  the  application  of  steam  to  naval 
vessels,  or  had  remained  neutral  on  the  subject, 
now  came  forward  to  advocate  it.  Among  them 
were  Lord  Melville  and  Sir  George  Cockburn. 

Another  claimant  for  the  honor  was  Joseph 
Price,  a  glass  manufacturer  of  Newcastle-on-Tync. 
In  1838  he  delivered  an  address,  from  which  the 
following  is  an  extract : 

In  July,  18 1 8,  I  conceived  that  good  might  be 
done  with  steamboats  by  towing  vessels  to  sea.  In 
furtherance  of  my  idea,  I  applied  to  the  late  Mr. 
Robson,  Wharfinger  of  Newcastle,  for  leave  to  try 
an  experiment  with  one  of  his  loaded  vessels, 
which  was  granted.  I  gave  notice  to  Captain 
Copeland,  of  the  'Friends'  Adventure,'  Hull  trader, 
to  have  all  ready  from  an  hour  to  an  hour  and  a 
half  before  high  water.  At  the  time  appointed  I 
requested  him  to  throw  a  line  on  board  the  steamer. 


IiVAUGURATIOJ^  OF  STEAM  TO  WING. 

The  tide  was  against  us  the  first  three  miles.  Every 
thing  answered  as  well  as  I  could  wish,  and  the  ves- 
sel was  towed  two  miles  over  the  bar  in  two  hours  and 
ten  minutes,  a  distance  of  thirteen  miles,  the  wind 
against  us  all  the  way.  This  was  the  first  time  a 
sailing-vessel  was  ever  towed  by  a  steamboat.  The 
public  did  not  at  first  appreciate  my  endeavors  for 
expediting  the  sailing  of  ships  in  adverse  winds  ; 
on  the  contrary,  I  was  told  I  had  ruined  the  port, 
I  continued  my  two  steamboats,  the  Perseverance 
and  the  Eagle,  in  this  employ,  with  little  benefit  to 
myself,  for  my  captains  were  so  timorous  they 
would  not  stir  but  in  moderate  weather.  They 
once  had  an  offer  to  tow  two  ships  with  one  boat ; 
they  would  on  no  account  undertake  so  heavy  a 
task." 

Another  account  of  steam  towing  at  Newcastle 
says  : 

Mr.  Price's  example  led  the  way  to  general 
traction  by  steam.  After  a  considerable  interval 
other  owners  of  steamboats  saw  the  advantage  of 
the  towing  system,  and  employed  theirs  in  a  similar 
manner,  receiving  pay  according  to  the  depth  of 
water  the  sailing-vessels  drew.  The  advantage 
to  the  ship-owner  was  great.  Previously  no  vessel 
over  two  hundred  and  forty  tons  register  ever  at- 
tempted to  come  up  to  Newcastle.  After  the  in- 
troduction of  the  towing  system  vessels  of  four 
hundred  tons  were  brought  up,  and  vessels  that 


296 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


previously  averaged  only  eight  voyages  in  the  year 
between  the  Tyne  and  the  Thames,  were  able  to 
average  thirteen  voyages,  thereby  keeping  the  coal 
market  regularly  supplied  and  preventing  those 
great  fluctuations  in  prices  which  formerly  had 
such  a  serious  effect  in  increasing  the  miseries  of 
the  poor." 

According  to  Mr.  Price  the  towing  system  was 
adopted  between  Gainsborough  and  Hull  in  1821, 
and  four  years  later  at  Liverpool.  Afterwards  it 
was  adopted  at  Montreal,  and  he  records  that  a 
large  steamboat  towed  three  or  four  ships  to  that 
city  from  Quebec  in  forty-eight  hours.  Before  that 
time  sailing  vessels  between  Quebec  and  Montreal 
required  two  or  three  weeks  for  the  voyage. 

The  achievements  of  Mr.  Price  were  recorded  by 
a  local  poet  of  Newcastle  in  the  following  lines  : 

Steam  neist  cam'  puffin'  into  play 

And  put  an  end  to  rowin'  ; 
When  Price  said,  in  his  schemin'  way, 

^  Let  *s  try  the  chep  at  towin'.'  " 

Steam  was  not  satisfied  with  towing  the  Newcas- 
tle colliers  in  and  out  of  port.  A  few  years  after 
'the  successful  experiment  of  Mr.  Price,  a  coal  ves- 
sel was  fitted  with  a  steam-engine  and  made  the 
trip  to  London  and  back  so  quickly  as  to  astonish 
the  owners  of  sailing  craft.  The  first  regular  steam 
collier  was  built  in    1844,  was  bark-rigged. 

Since  then  steam  colliers  have  been  built  in  con- 


STEAM  COLLIERS. 


297 


siderable  numbers,  and  at  present  they  have  nearly 
driven  the  saihng-vessels  out  of  the  business.  The 
colHers  are  built  with  more  regard  to  capacity  than 
speed.  Few  men  are  required  for  their  manage- 
ment, and  the  cost  of  the  fuel  consumed  on  the 
voyage  is  more  than  compensated  by  the  great 
saving  in  time  and  the  consequent  transporting 
ability  of  a  vessel  in  a  given  number  of  months. 

One  of  the  latest  of  the  steam  colliers  is  the 
King  Coal,  which  cost,  when  ready  for  sea,  sev- 
enty-five thousand  dollars,  and  may  be  taken  as  a 
type  of  this  kind  of  vessel.  She  can  carry  one 
thousand  tons  of  coal,  and  has  arrangements  for 
ballasting  herself  with  water  when  she  has  no  coal 
on  board.  Her  speed  is  from  eight  and  a  half  to 
nine  and  a  half  knots  an  hour — the  former  being 
her  progress  when  fully  laden  and  with  the  wind 
against  her.  Her  engines  are  ninety-horse  power, 
nominal.  All  the  work  of  hoisting  sails  and  lifting 
anchors  is  done  by  steam-power,  and  her  entire 
complement  of  men  is  seventeen.  There  is  no 
accommodation  for  passengers,  with  the  exception 
of  four  berths  in  the  captain's  saloon  for  persons 
who  may  be  interested  in  the  cargo.  They  mess 
with  the  officers  during  the  voyage,  and  are  not 
provided  with  a  separate  table. 

A  voyage  of  a  steam  collier  from  Newcastle  to 
London  and  back  occupies  from  six  to  eight  days. 
A  vessel  of  this  sort  can  deliver  fifty  thousand  tons 


298 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


of  coal  in  London  annually,  while  the  ordinary  sail- 
ing collier  could  not  deliver  under  favorable  circum- 
stances more  than  three  thousand  five  hundred  tons. 
The  Reading  and  other  coal  companies  in  the  Uni- 
ted States  have  a  good  many  steam  colliers  in  use. 
Few  of  these  boats  in  Atlantic  waters  have  any  ac- 
commodations for  passengers,  but  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  between  Puget  Sound  and  San  Francisco, 
they  are  fitted  for  the  transportation  of  passengers, 
and  also  for  general  cargoes  on  their  return  trips  to 
the  mines. 

The  first  steam  vessel  employed  regularly  in  the 
Irish  trade  from  Liverpool  was  the  Waterloo,  built 
at  Greenock  in  18 19,  and  intended  to  run  between 
Glasgow  and  Belfast.  After  a  few  trips  in  that  ser- 
vice she  was  placed  on  the  line  between  Belfast  and 
Liverpool,  arriving  for  the  first  time  in  the  latter 
port  on  the  23d  of  July  of  that  year.  The  Liver- 
pool Mercury  described  her  as  ''a  beautiful  steam 
packet  of  201  tons,  98  feet  long,  37  feet  wide  on 
deck,  and  having  two  highly-finished  engines  of  30 
horse-power  each,  which  work  without  noise  or  vi- 
bration, and  are,  on  the  low-pressure  construction, 
quite  safe  from  accident."  The  paper  adds  that 
''her  interior  accommodations  are  as  complete  and 
elegant  as  skill  and  expense  can  make  them.  She 
has  a  handsome  dining-room,  capable  of  accommo- 
dating all  the  cabin  passengers,  a  separate  and 
neatly  decorated  cabin  for  ladies,  two  apartments 


Navigation  from  Dublin  to  iiolyhead.  299 


for  private  families,  twenty -two  well -furnished 
beds,  and  a  comfortable  place  for  steerage  passen- 
gers/' The  fare  was  £\  \\s,  6d.  for  the  first  cabin 
and  los.  for  steerage.  Passengers  were  informed 
that  they  were  not  under  the  necessity  of  taking 
provisions,  as  every  thing  could  be  had  on  board 
at  moderate  prices.  She  was  to  accomplish  the 
journey  in  thirty  hours,  and  would  sail  every  Mon- 
day and  Friday  from  Liverpool. 

Afterwards  the  Waterloo  was  placed  on  the  line 
between  Dublin  and  Liverpool.  Compare  the  de- 
scription of  this  steamer  with  that  of  one  of  the 
latest  boats  plying  across  St.  George's  Channel. 
The  Waterloo  may  be  considered  the  pioneer  of 
the  lines  that  connect  England  with  Ireland,  and 
have  obtained  the  reputation  of  including  the  fast- 
est steamers  in  the  world.  The  most  noted  of 
these  lines  is  that  of  the  Dublin  Steam  Packet 
Company,  and  its  most  noted  vessels  are  those 
that  carry  the  mails  between  Dublin  and  Holy- 
head. About  twenty-five  years  ago  a  service  of 
fast  steamers  was  established  on  this  route.  Four 
vessels — the  ''Ulster,"  ''Munster,"  Leinster,"  and 
''Connaught" — made  regular  trips  daily  each  way 
regardless  of  weather,  and  the  contract  required 
them  to  perform  the  journey  in  four  hours  under 
a  penalty  of  twenty-five  dollars  a  minute  for  all 
time  they  fell  short  of  that  schedule. 

Quite  recently  a  new  packet,  the  ''  Ireland,"  has 


300 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


been  placed  on  this  route,  and  her  owners  claim  that 
she  is  the  fastest  steamer  afloat.  The  following  de- 
scription of  this  boat  and  her  performance  was 
published  in  October,  1885  • 

The  Ireland  attained  a  speed  of  twenty-one  knots  an 
hour,  or  between  twenty-four  and  twenty-five  statute 
miles,  in  her  trial  run  across  the  Channel.  The  distance  in 
a  straight  line  from  Holyhead  to  Kingstown  is  fifty-six 
knots  ;  but,  however  well  a  ship  may  be  steered,  it  is  im- 
possible for  her  to  keep  an  absolutely  straight  course, 
and  the  distance  actually  traversed  must  have  been  in- 
creased accordingly  ;  yet  taking  no  account  of  this,  and 
reckoning  the  distance  at  fifty-six  knots,  the  ship  must 
have  maintained  an  average  speed  of  20.2  knots  per  hour 
from  point  to  point  ;  a  performance  which  is  without  a 
parallel  in  rough-water  steaming.  The  actual  time  was 
2h.  46  min.  15  sec,  with  a  mean  of  6,337  indicated  horse 
power,  under  draught  moderately  forced  by  fans,  the 
mean  pressure  of  steam  being  27  lbs.,  and  the  engines 
making  27.17  revolutions  a  minute.  Another  trip,  under 
natural  draught  without  fans,  gave  an  average  speed  of  18.9 
knots,  the  whole  time  being  2h.  57  min.  45  sec.  The 
Ireland  has  a  length  over  all  of  380  ft.,  between  perpen- 
diculars 360  ft.,  with  38  ft.  beam,  and  a  depth  in  hold  of 
19  ft.  3  in.,  her  tonnage  being  2,590  tons  old  measure- 
ment. She  is  fitted  with  jet  condensing  oscillating  en- 
gines, capable  of  developing  5,000-horse  power  with  boil- 
ers working  under  natural  draught,  and  at  least  6,000- 
horse  power  with  the  boilers  under  air  pressure  in  the 
stokeholes.  The  ship  is  built  entirely  of  Siemens  steel,  in 
order  that  the  greatest  strength  may  be  secured  with  the 
minimum  of  weight,  and  is  subdivided  by  steel  water- 


302 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


tight  bulkheads  to  the  upper-deck  into  eleven  compart- 
ments, one  bulkhead  between  the  engine-room  and  each 
boiler-room,  so  that  the  engines  and  each  set  of  boilers  are 
in  separate  compartments. 

The  Ireland  has  a  clipper  stem  with  shield  head,  and  a 
short  bowsprit,  a  light  elliptic  counter,  two  raking  masts 
and  two  funnels,  a  spacious  bridge  deck  amidships,  a  long 
poop  aft,  and  hurricane  deck  forward.  The  passenger 
accommodation  is  the  same  as  in  the  Company's  present 
steamers  as  now  fitted,  with  every  comfort  and  luxury. 
In  the  poop  is  a  saloon  80  ft.  in  length,  panelled  in  pol- 
ished hard  wood,  with  state  cabins  at  each  side.  On  the 
deck  below  is  the  spacious  dining-saloon,  richly  decorated 
in  gold  and  color,  with  a  commodious  serving-room  and 
pantry.  Forward  are  the  upper  and  lower  ladies'  saloons, 
which  are  elegant  apartments.  The  saloons  have  a  height 
of  10  ft.  6  in.  from  deck  to  ceiling ;  the  stairways  are 
roomy  and  well  arranged,  the  ventilation  and  light  being 
all  that  can  be  desired  ;  forward  is  additional  sleeping 
accommodation  for  first-class,  so  that  in  all  there  will  be 
accommodation  for  200  first-class  passengers.  Handsome 
and  convenient  smoking-cabins  are  provided  amidships  ;  a 
spacious  saloon  and  cabins  forward  for  second-class.  The 
arrangement  of  pantries,  lavatories,  and  such  offices  is  ex- 
tensive and  complete,  and  the  ship  is  lighted  with  the 
electric  light." 

The  predecessors  of  the  Ireland  frequently  made 
the  passage  at  the  rate  of  twenty-iwo  miles  an  hour, 
but  they  seem  to  be  left  behind  by  this  latest  addi- 
tion to  the  fleet.  Improvements  are  being  made  in 
the  old  boats,  and  new  ones  will  follow  and  proba- 
bly pass  the  Ireland  before  this  book  has  gone 


DAVID  NAPIER. 


through  the  press.  The  time  between  London 
and  DubHn  has  been  reduced  to  ten  and  a  half 
hours  and  it  is  possible  that  by  the  end  of  the 
century  it  may  be  brought  down  to  ten  or  even  to 
nine  hours.  In  his  wildest  moments  Fulton  never 
dreamed  that  a  steamboat  would  be  able  to  pass 
through  the  water  at  the  rate  of  twenty-four  miles 
an  hour  ! 

Admiral  Preble  says  England  owes  to  David 
Napier  the  establishment  of  deep-sea  communica- 
tion by  steam  packets.  When  steamboats  were 
established  on  the  Clyde  they  did  not  venture  out 
of  the  rivers  and  friths  except  in  fine  weather ; 
Napier  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  steam 
communication  on  the  open  sea,  and  as  a  first  step 
in  this  direction  he  wished  to  know  the  difficulty  he 
would  have  to  encounter.  With  this  object  he 
took  passage  on  a  sailing  packet — then  the  only 
means  of  communication — between  Glasgow  and 
Belfast,  at  a  stormy  period  of  the  year.  The  sail- 
ing voyage  usually  occupied  a  week  ;  the  journey 
by  steam  is  now  made  in  nine  hours. 

During  the  voyage  Napier  used  to  stand  for 
hours  together  on  the  bow  of  the  packet,  watching 
the  waves  breaking  at  the  stem.  He  occasionally 
left  his  post  to  ask  the  captain  if  the  sea  might  be 
considered  a.  rough  one  ;  when  told  it  was  nothing 
unusual  he  resumed  his  studies  with  an  air  of  dis- 
appointment.    He  did  not  mind  being  drenched 


304 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


with  the  spray,  and  as  the  breeze  freshened  into  a 
gale  he  again  asked  if  the  sea  could  be  called  rough. 
He  was  again  disappointed  and  resumed  his  place. 

At  last  he  had  a  storm  that  satisfied  him.  The 
sea  broke  over  the  bows  and  swept  the  ship  from 
stem  to  stern  ;  as  he  made  his  way  aft  and  stood 
dripping  before  the  captain  he  repeated  his  inquiry  : 

Do  you  consider  it  rough  now  ?  " 
The    captain    answered  that  he    did  not  re- 
member to  have  faced  a  worse  sea  in  the  whole 
course  of  his  experience. 

"  Oh!  If  that  s  all,"  said  Napier,  I  think  I  can 
manage  it";  and  with  these  words  he  went  to  his 
cabin,  and  did  not  trouble  himself  much  about  the 
waves  after  that. 

Afterwards  he  experimented  with  models  of 
boats  in  tubs  of  water,  in  order  to  find  the  shape 
of  bow  that  would  go  through  the  liquid  with  the 
least  resistance.  He  had  a  theory  that  the  round, 
bluff  bow  of  a  sailing  vessel  was  not  adapted  to  a 
boat  with  its  own  power  of  propulsion,  and  his 
experiments  confirmed  him  in  his  belief.  This 
led  him  to  adopt  the  fine  wedge-shaped  entrance 
for  which  his  boats  were  distinguished,  and  which 
has  been  generally  adopted  for  steamers  all  over 
the  world. 

Napier  established  steam  communication  be- 
tween Greenock  and  Belfast  in  1818  with  the 
steamer  Rob  Roy,  which  has  been  mentioned  else- 


DAVID  NAPIER. 


where.  She  ran  for  two  winters  between  these 
ports,  and  was  afterwards  placed  on  the  route  be- 
tween Dover  and  Calais.  The  Rob  Roy  was  of 
90  tons  burthen  and  30-horse  power.  In  1819, 
Napier  superintended  the  building  of  the  Talbot, 
150  tons,  and  60-horse  power,  which  was  placed 
between  Dublin  and  Holyhead  about  the  time  the 
Waterloo  began  running  between  the  Irish  capital 
and  Liverpool.  Napier  introduced  surface  con- 
densers on  the  steamer  Post  Boy  in  1822.  They 
consisted  of  small  copper  pipes,  surrounded  by 
cold  water,  the  steam  passing  through  the  pipes 
being  condensed  while  on  its  way  to  the  air-pump. 
The  experiment  was  a  failure,  and  he  returned  to 
the  old  system  of  jet  condensation.  Some  years 
later  he  tried  flat  plates  instead  of  tubes,  and  was 
more  successful. 

In  1826  Napier  built  what  was  then  considered 
a  leviathan  steamer  for  the  trade  between  London 
and  Edinburgh.  She  was  named  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  her  immense  size  attracted  thou- 
sands of  people  to  see  her. 

The  measurements  of  this  embryo  Great 
Eastern  "  were  160  feet  long,  26^  feet  beam,  and  en- 
gines of  200-horse  power.  Some  of  the  wise 
ones  shook  their  heads,  and  said  she  was  too  large 
to  be  profitable  to  her  owners,  and  they  feared 
her  great  size  would  make  her  unwieldy  at  sea  in 
rough  weather. 


3o6 


ROBERT  FVJ.TON. 


Down  to  1823,  eleven  years  after  Bell's  success- 
ful experiment  with  the  Comet,  one  hundred  and 
sixty-seven  steam  vessels  were  launched  in  Great 
Britain.  The  largest  of  these  was  the  Soho,  of 
510  tons — smaller  than  the  Chancellor  Livingston, 
520  tons,  which  was  running  in  New  York  waters 
in  18 1 6.  A  still  larger  boat,  the  Lady  Sherbrooke, 
787  tons,  was  running  on  the  St.  Lawrence  at  the 
time  the  Soho  began  her  career. 

In  1836  France  had  only  eighty-two  steam- 
boats, the  most  of  them  being  small  affairs,  and 
only  intended  for  the  rivers  of  the  country. 
Twenty-one  were  tow-boats,  forty  for  passengers, 
and  seventeen  for  carrying  freight.  They  averaged 
a  measurement  of  180  tons  and  35-horse  power 
each.  At  the  same  time  the  French  navy  contained 
twenty-seven  steam  vessels,  while  fifty-four  steamers 
were  in  course  of  preparation  for  the  use  of  the 
French  Postal  Department  in  carrying  mails  in  the 
Mediterranean. 

In  that  year,  1836,  while  France  had  eighty-two 
steamboats  of  all  kinds,  England  possessed  three 
hundred  and  ninety-seven.  One  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  were  below  fifty  tons  each  in  measurement 
and  one  hundred  and  eighteen  more  were  under  one 
hundred  tons.  The  largest  was  the  Monarch,  of 
London,  which  measured  587  tons,  and  there  were 
only  two  or  three  others  that  exceeded  500  tons. 
The  newspapers  of  1836  spoke  of  an  'M'mmense 


STEAM  FLEET  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN,  307 


Steam  frigate  to  be  called  the  '  Gorgon/  to  be 
built  in  London.  She  is  to  be  eleven  hundred 
tons,  and  will  carry  twelve  guns." 

In  1837,  one  year  later  than  the  above,  the 
United  Kingdom  had  6i8  steamers.  Of  these 
there  were  432  belonging  to  England,  showing  an 
increase  of  thirty-five  in  a  twelvemonth.  From 
this  point  we  will  drop  the  annual  record  of  steam 
navigation  in  England,  to  avoid  pages  of  figures 
which  might  be  dreary,  and  come,  at  a  single 
bound,  to  the  present  time.  Observe  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  steam  interest  on  the  water  under 
the  flag  of  St.  George  and  the  Dragon. 

The  United  Kingdom  now  employs  a  total  of 
4,753  steamers  ;  3,047  of  these  vessels  are  en- 
gaged in  ocean  navigation,  137  in  what  may  be 
called  the  long  coasting  trade,"  and  1,569  in  har- 
bors, rivers,  and  short  coasting."  The  aggregate 
measurement  of  this  enormous  fleet  is  3,656,000 
tons.  The  total  number  of  registered  steam 
vessels  in  Great  Britain  and  its  colonies — which 
comprise  the  British  Empire — is  8,206,  with  an 
aggregate  measurement  of  4,013,000  tons.  These 
figures  do  not  include  the  navy  of  Great  Britain, 
of  which  we  will  speak  on  another  page. 

Elsewhere  will  be  found  a  table  showing  the 
number  and  tonnage  of  the  steam  vessels  of  the 
principal  countries  of  the  globe.  It  must  be  under- 
stood that,  while  approximately  correct,  these  fig- 


3o8 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


ures  cannot  be  so  exactly.  New  vessels  are  con- 
stantly being  added  to  the  fleets  of  the  various 
maritime  nations,  and  at  the  same  time  old 
ones  are  withdrawn  from  service,  and  both  new 
and  old  ships  are  lost  at  sea  or  upon  inland  waters. 


The  Earliest  Tow-Boat. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


First  steamboat  in  India — An  eventful  career  of  sixty  years — Steamers  in 
Chinese  waters — The  P'o-Shune  " — The  mails  to  India — Steam  navi- 
gation in  Japan  and  China — Early  steamers  on  the  Atlantic — The  log- 
book of  the  Savannah — The  Siriiis,  Great  Western,  and  British  Queen — 
Prospectus  of  the  British  and  American  Steam  Navigation  Company, 

FROM  Europe  we  will  turn  our  eyes  to  Asia. 
The  first  steamer  in  India  was  tKe  Snake, 
built  in  Bombay,  in  1820,  for  the  navigation  of  the 
Indus  River.  Her  engines  were  designed  and  built 
by  a  Parsee,  after  drawings  which  he  had  obtained 
from  London  ;  they  were  evidently  well  constructed, 
if  we  may  judge  by  the  life  of  the  boat.  The 
Snake  was  employed  in  the  first  and  second  Bur- 
mese wars  (1824  and  1852),  in  an  expedition  to 
the  Persian  Gulf  in  1826,  in  the  war  with  China 
( 1 841-2),  the  Persian  war  of  1856,  the  Mutiny  of 
1857,  the  Chinese  expedition  of  1859,  several 
other  campaigns  of  lesser  note.  She  was  wrecked 
twice, — in  a  hurricane  in  1837  and  a  cyclone  in 
1854, — but  managed  to  survive  all  her  ills  and  ad- 
ventures until  1880,  when  she  was  broken  up,  after 
an  eventful  career  of  sixty  years. 

In  182 1,  a  steamer  of  sixteen-horse  power,  and 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


called  the  Diana,  was  sent  to  China  for  use  on  the 
Canton  River,  but  she  was  not  successful  there.  In 
1823  she  was  sent  to  Calcutta,  and  partially  rebuilt  ; 
then  she  was  sold  to  the  Bengal  Government,  and 
used  to  navigate  the  Irrawaddy.  She  carried  the 
British  Resident,  Sir  James  Crawford,  five  hundred 
miles  up  that  stream,  but  as  she  only  succeeded  in 
making  about  thirty  miles  a  day,  she  disappointed 
her  owners  and  soon  after  disappeared  from  his- 
tory. 

A  sailing  ship,  the  Falcon,  was  fitted  with  aux- 
iliary engines,  and  sent  to  India  in  1820,  making 
part  of  the  voyage  under  steam.  She  returned  in 
the  same  way,  but  the  saving  of  time  was  not 
enough  to  encourage  her  owners  to  continue  the 
experiment.  In  1825,  the  steamship  Enterprise, 
commanded  by  Lieutenant  Johnson,  of  the  Royal 
Navy,  was  despatched  from  London  for  Calcutta. 
She  was  of  470  tons  burthen,  with  engines  of  120- 
horse  power.  She  was  built  by  an  association  of 
gentlemen  who  sold  her  for  forty  thousand  pounds 
to  the  Bengal  Government.  The  purchase  money 
added  to  what  had  been  received  for  passengers 
and  freight  reimbursed  them  well  for  the  cost  of 
the  boat. 

The  distance  from  London  to  Diamond  Harbor, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Hoogly,  is  13,700  miles,  via 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  the  only  route  then  avail- 
able.   The  Enterprise  sailed  on  the  i6th  August, 


FIRST  STEAMBOAT  IN  INDIA. 


1825,  and  made  the  voyage  to  Diamond  Harbor  in 
113  days  ;  she  was  at  anchor  10  days,  under  steam 
64  days,  and  under  sail  39  days.  Lieutenant,  or 
''Captain,"  Johnson  received  ten  thousand  pounds 
sterHng  for  making  the  first  steam  voyage  to  India  ; 
many  a  modern  shipmaster  would  willingly  make  it 
for  fifty  pounds.  The  Enterprise  was  employed 
to  great  advantage  by  the  East  India  Company  in 
the  Burmese  and  other  wars.  At  the  time  of  the 
treaty  of  Malwa  she  saved  the  government  no  less 
than  sixty  thousand  pounds  sterling  by  arriving  at 
Calcutta  in  season  to  prevent  the  march  of  troops 
from  the  northern  provinces  of  Bengal. 

The  Enterprise  may  be  considered  the  pioneer 
of  the  numerous  steam  lines  that  now  connect 
England  with  India,  a  few  by  way  of  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  but  the  greater  number  through 
the  Suez  Canal.  Five  years  after  her  voyage,  the 
British  Government  sent  the  steamer  Meteor  to 
the  Mediterranean  in  the  postal  service,  and  this  is 
said  to  have  been  the  first  use  of  steam  in  the 
transportation  of  the  foreign  mails.  In  March  of 
the  same  year  (1830),  the  armed  steamer,  Hugh 
Lindsay,  left  Bombay  for  Suez,  carrying  the  mails 
from  India,  and  a  single  passenger,  Colonel  Camp- 
bell, the  only  one  for  which  she  had  room.  The 
Hugh  Lindsay  was  of  411  tons,  and  had  two  en- 
gines of  80-horse  power  each.  On  leaving  Bom- 
bay she  was  so  deeply  laden  with  coal  that  her 


312 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


deck  was  almost  level  with  the  water,  and  her 
wheels  could  hardly  revolve.  She  could  only  carry 
coal  enough  for  six  days'  steaming,  and  on  reaching 
Aden,  she  had  less  than  a  hundred  bushels  remain- 
ing. She  made  the  voyage  from  Bombay  to  Suez 
in  thirty-three  days,  having  lost  twelve  days  while 
coaling  at  Aden,  Mocha,  Jiddah,  and  Kosseir. 
Consequently  her  time  under  steam  was  twenty-one 
days,  making  an  average  of  i  55  miles  a  day.  When 
she  left  Bombay  the  deck  was  piled  with  coal  and 
the  cabin  filled  with  it. 

The  letters  sent  by  the  Hugh  Lindsay  reached 
England  in  less  time  than  any  previous  mail  from 
India,  and  the  success  of  the  trip,  in  spite  of  its 
great  cost,  led  to  the  opening  of  the  so-called 

Overland  Mail  Route."  The  only  land  journey 
on  the  line  when  it  was  first  established  was  from 
Alexandria  to  Suez,  a  distance  of  250  miles;  the 
rest  of  the  route  from  London  to  Bombay,  6,126 
miles,  was  upon  the  sea.  It  is  sad  to  record  that 
Lieutenant  Waghorn,  the  founder  of  the  overland 
mail  route,  spent  much  time  and  energy  in  that 
work,  and  died  in  poverty  after  its  success  was 
assured.  Through  his  exertions  was  founded  the 
Peninsular  and  Oriental  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany, popularly  called  the  ''P.  and  O.,"  and  one  of 
the  largest  steamship  companies  in  the  world.  It 
will  be  mentioned  more  extensively  in  a  later 
chapter. 


STEAMERS  IN  CHINESE  WATERS. 


After  the  experiment  with  the  Diana  at  Canton 
nothing  seems  to  have  been  done  in  the  navigation 
of  Chinese  waters  by  steam  for  several  years. 
Rev.  E.  C.  Bridgeman,  one  of  the  pioneer  mis- 
sionaries from  America  to  China,  says  in  his  diary 
under  date  of  April  19,  1832:  ''Arrived  here 
(Macao)  in  the  steamer  Forbes — the  first  ship  of 
this  kind  that  has  ever  visited  these  shores.  She 's 
a  wonder  to  the  Chinese.  They  call  her  Fo-Shune 
— 'The  Fire-ship.'" 

The  Forbes  was  sent  out  in  pieces  from  Boston 
and  put  together  near  Whampoa  anchorage,  below 
Canton.  In  1835  some  of  the  English  merchants 
attempted  to  run  a  small  steamer — the  Jardine — 
upon  the  Canton  River,  connecting  the  ports  of 
Lintin,  Macao,  and  Whampoa.  The  Chinese  op- 
posed it  so  energetically  that  there  was  danger  of 
international  trouble,  and  the  project  was  given 
up.  There  was  a  voluminous  correspondence  be- 
tween the  foreign  merchants  and  the  Chinese  au- 
thorities upon  the  subject.  The  governor  of  Can- 
ton ordered  the  forts  to  open  fire  upon  the  steamer 
if  she  attempted  to  pass  up  to  the  city,  and  he  was 
evidently  afraid  that  the  foreigners  had  some  other 
motive  than  that  of  establishing  speedy  communi- 
cation from  place  to  place. 

The  Jardine  was  sailed  out  from  Scotland  as  a 
schooner,  carrying  her  engines  carefully  packed 
and  stowed  in  her  hold.     On  her  arrival  the  ma- 


314 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


chinery  was  put  in  working  order,  and  she  made 
several  trips  between  Macao  and  Lintin  before  the 
appHcation  was  sent  for  the  authorization  of  the 
Chinese  governor.  After  the  war  of  1841  a  new 
treaty  enabled  the  foreigners  to  secure  their  steam- 
boats against  molestation.  The  Jardine  was  eighty- 
five  feet  long,  seventeen  feet  beam,  and  drew  six 
feet  of  water.  The  power  of  her  engines  is  not 
known. 

Between  1841  and  i85o  several  English  and 
American  steamboats  were  sent  to  China — some 
going  under  steam,  and  others  being  shipped  in 
pieces  that  were  put  together  on  arrival.  Among 
these  vessels  was  the  schooner-rigged  screw  steamer 
Midas,  Captain  Poor,  which  went  from  New  York 
to  China  in  1843,  probably  the  first  voyage  of  that 
length  ever  undertaken  by  a  steamer.  One  of  the 
earlier  boats — the  Spark — is  still  running  between 
Canton,  Macao,  and  Hong-Kong,  or  was  doing  so  at 
last  accounts.  She  was  sent  from  Boston  in  pieces 
somewhere  about  1847,  and  has  been  rebuilt  and 
lengthened  within  the  last  few  years.  About  1876 
she  was  captured  by  Chinese  pirates,  and  all  the 
Europeans  on  board  were  killed,  but  the  vessel 
escaped  serious  injury.  Between  i85o  and  1870 
a  considerable  number  of  large  steamboats  was 
sent  out,  generally  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  and  an  excellent  service  was  established  on 
the  rivers  of  China  and  along  the  coast. 


STEAMERS  IN  CHINESE  WATERS. 


In  i860  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  was  temporarily 
opened  to  foreign  trade,  and  an  English  steamer 
went  to  Hankow,  six  hundred  miles  above  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  to  load  a  cargo  of  teas  direct 
for  London.  At  present  a  good  many  tea-steam- 
ers are  loaded  at  Hankow  every  year  for  London 
direct,  and  some  of  them  have  made  the  trip  from 
port  to  port  in  less  than  forty  days.  Not  infre- 
quently there  is  a  race  between  rival  ships,  and  it 
is  vigorously  maintained  for  the  whole  distance  of 
eleven  thousand  miles. 

The  formal  and  permanent  opening  of  the  Chi- 
nese ports  to  foreign  commerce  did  not  take  place 
until  the  spring  of  1861.  An  American  steamer — 
the  Fire  Dart — proceeded  up  the  Yang-tse  as  soon 
as  the  treaty  was  proclaimed.  Her  owners  thought 
she  would  be  the  first  on  the  spot,  but  on 
reaching  Hankow,  she  found  the  Saint  Theodo- 
sius,  a  German  steamer,  quietly  anchored  in  front 
of  the  town.  In  a  few  days  the  British  steamer 
Governor-General  arrived,  and,  since  then,  the  navi- 
gation of  the  great  river  of  China  has  never  been 
interrupted.  Three  years  after  this  formal  open- 
ing there  was  a  daily  service  each  way  between 
Shanghai  and  Hankow,  performed  alternately  by 
the  boats  of  an  English  and  an  American  com- 
pany. In  1877  an  American  naval  vessel — the 
Monocacy — steamed  up  the  Yang-tse  to  Ichang, 
four  hundred  miles  above  Hankow  and  one  thou-- 


3l6  ROBERT  FULTON. 

sand  from  the  sea.  She  carried  Mr.  I.  F.  Shepard, 
American  consul  at  Hankow,  who  formally  opened 
the  river  to  American  commerce  as  far  as  Ichang. 

In  1 858  Lord  Elgin  presented  the  steam  yacht 
Emperor  to  the  Chinese  authorities  after  they  had 
signed  the  treaty  of  Tien-Tsin.  This  was  the  first 
steamer  owned  by  Chinese,  but  since  that  time  they 
have  bought  foreign-built  steamers  in  great  num- 
bers, and  have  also  learned  to  build  for  themselves. 

In  1874  some  Chinese  capitalists  organized  a 
steamship  enterprise,  which  they  called  the  "China 
Merchants'  Steam  Navigation  Company."  They 
bought  several  steamers  belonging  to  an  American 
firm  in  China,  and  started  a  line  between  Shanghai 
and  Hankow.  An  English  company  had  aline  on 
the  river,  and  a  fierce  competition  began  between 
the  two  concerns.  The  rates  of  freight  and  passage 
fell  to  a  ruinous  figure  ;  the  Chinese  company  ob- 
tained most  of  the  business,  and,  finally,  the  for- 
eigners were  obliged  to  sell  out  their  twenty-six 
boats  and  their  wharf  property  to  the  Orientals. 

Before  the  sale  of  the  river  line,  the  Chinese  had 
established  coast  lines  to  Foo-Chow,  Hong-Kong, 
Tien-Tsin,  and  other  places,  and  they  have  several 
other  lines  in  operation  in  the  Eastern  seas.  Dur- 
ing the  difficulties  with  the  F^rench  in  recent  times, 
the  steamship  enterprises  of  the  Chinese  were  con- 
siderably restricted  ;  some  of  their  boats  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Americans,  but  it  was  clearly 


STEAM  NA  VIGA  TION  IN  JAPAN. 


understood  that  the  transfer  was  only  temporary. 
China  possesses  enormous  coal  fields  and  iron 
mines,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  she  may  yet 
become  one  of  the  leading  nations  in  navigating 
the  ocean  by  steam-power. 

The  Japanese  Government  bought  several  steam- 
ships in  1 859-1 860.     In  1 86 1,  two  steamers  were 


The  Stonewall.'' 

purchased  by  the  Prince  of  Satsuma,  and  were  the 
first  vessels  of  the  kind  owned  by  Japanese,  except 
by  the  government.  Considering  their  former  se- 
clusion from  the  rest  of  the  world,  this  Oriental 
people  have  made  remarkable  progress  in  steam 
navigation.     They  have  steamship  lines  of  their 


318 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


own  ;  they  have  ship-yards,  where  they  build  and 
equip  steamers  on  the  European  model  ;  and  they 
have  foundries  where  first-class  marine  engines 
are  turned  out.  Japanese  men-of-war,  wholly  built, 
armed,  equipped,  and  manned  by  Japanese,  have 
appeared  in  foreign  waters,  and  demonstrated  the 
ability  of  the  people  of  Nippon  to  adopt  the  ways 
of  the  Occidentals.  One  of  the  first  iron-clads 
owned  by  the  Japanese  Government  was  the  Rebel 
ram.  Stonewall,  which  was  surrendered  to  the 
United  States  by  Spain  at  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War.  She  was  of  twelve  hundred  tons  burthen, 
and  carried  three  guns. 

The  first  steamer  to  Australia  has  been  men- 
tioned elsewhere,  and  so  has  the  first  steamer  to 
pass  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  We  will  now  turn  to 
a  subject  of  special  interest — the  inauguration  of 
steam  navigation  upon  the  Atlantic. 

The  Atlantic  Ocean  was  first  crossed  by  a 
steamer  in  1819,  and  the  feat  was  performed  by  an 
American  vessel,  the  Savannah.  English  writers 
have  patriotically  attempted  to  falsify  history 
regarding  this  pioneer  of  transatlantic  naviga- 
tion. Woodcroft,  in  his  work  on  steam  naviga- 
tion, pronounces  the  Savannah  a  myth  ;  the  Il- 
lustrated' London  News,  as  late  as  1858,  says  :  It 
is  forced  into  the  belief  that  she  was  merely  an 
after-thought  of  the  Americans"  ;  and  the  writer  of 
the  article  upon  steam  navigation  in  Chambers's 


320 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Encyclopedia"  (American  edition,  vol.  ix.,  page 
1 08)  ignores  the  Savannah  completely,  and  says 
the  first  transatlantic  voyage  was  made  by  the 
Sirius  in  1838. 

The  Savannah  was  of  three  hundred  and  eighty 
tons  burthen  ;  built  at  New  York,  to  run  between 
that  port  and  Liverpool  as  a  sailing  packet.  She 
was  launched  August  22,  18 18.  About  the  time 
she  came  from  the  ways  she  was  bought  by  several 
gentlemen  of  Savannah,  at  the  suggestion  of  Cap- 
tain Moses  Rogers  of  that  port,  and  fitted  up  as  a 
steamer. 

No  change  was  made  in  her  rigging,  as  it  was  in- 
tended that  she  should  make  use  of  her  sails  when 
ever  she  could  do  so.  She  was  fitted  with  engines 
and  the  proper  machinery  for  working  a  pair  of 
paddle-wheels,  which  were  so  constructed  that  they 
could  be  shipped  or  unshipped  at  pleasure.  The 
wheels  folded  up  like  a  fan,  and  were  easily  brought 
in  upon  the  deck  when  not  in  use,  and  the  shaft 
had  a  joint  to  facilitate  the  operation. 

The  Savannah  made  a  trial  trip  from  New  York 
to  Savannah  and  back  again  in  April,  18 19,  going 
part  of  the  time  under  steam  and  the  rest  under 
sail.  In  May  she  left  New  York  for  Savannah 
under  sail  only ;  from  Savannah  she  went  to 
Charleston,  S.  C,  and  invited  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  go  in  her  to  Savannah,  but  the 
President    declined.      However,  he    was  shortly 


FIRST  TRANSATLANTIC  STEAM  VOYAGE,        32 1 


afterwards  in  the  latter  city,  and  made  an  excursion 
on  the  steamer,  accompanied  by  his  staff  and  sev- 
eral officers  of  the  army  and  navy.  He  told  Mr. 
Scarborough,  one  of  her  owners,  to  bring  her  to 
Washington  on  her  return  from  Liverpool,  as  he 
thought  the  government  would  purchase  her  for 
use  as  a  cruiser  in  the  Caribbean  Sea. 

On  the  26th  of  May,  1819,  she  sailed  from 
Savannah  for  Liverpool.  She  was  commanded  by 
Captain  Moses  Rogers  and  navigated  by  Stephen 
Rogers,  both  natives  of  New  London,  Connecticut, 
and  carried  seventy-five  tons  of  coal  and  twenty-five 
cords  of  wood.  The  passage  from  Savannah  to 
Liverpool  was  made  in  twenty-six  days,  eight  under 
sail  and  eighteen  under  steam.  An  article  in  Har- 
per s  Magazine  for  February,  1877,  says  Captain 
Moses  Rogers  ''commanded  the  first  steamboat  on 
the  Hudson,  the  first  steamboat  on  the  Delaware, 
the  first  steamboat  on  the  Chesapeake,  the  first 
steamboat  between  Charleston  and  Savannah,  and 
the  first  steamship  that  crossed  the  Atlantic."  On 
his  return  from  Europe  he  was  engaged  in  navigat- 
ing the  Great  Pedee  River  in  South  Carolina,  and 
died  of  malarial  fever  at  the  early  age  of  forty-two 
years.  Stephen  Rogers,  the  sailing-master  of  the 
Savannah,  died  at  New  London,  Connecticut,  in 
1868,  at  the  age  of  seventy-four  years. 

Any  British  reader  who  has  doubts  concerning 
the  performance  of  the  Savannah  is  referred  to  the 
following  : 


322 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


The  log-book  of  the  Savannah,  which  is  still  in 
existence  and  in  the  possession  of  the  descendants 
of  Captain  Rogers. 

The  London  Times  of  May  ii,  1 819,  which  con- 
tains the  following  paragraph  : 

''Great  Experiment. — A  new  steam  vessel  of 
300  tons  has  been  built  at  New  York  for  the  express 
purpose  of  carrying  passengers  across  the  Atlantic. 
She  is  to  come  to  Liverpool  direct." 

The  New  York  Register  of  August  21,  1819, 
which  contains  the  following  : 

The  steamship  Savannah,  Captain  Moses 
Rogers,  the  first  that  ever  crossed  the  Atlantic, 
arrived  at  Liverpool  in  twenty-five  days  from 
Savannah,  all  well,  to  the  great  astonishment  of 
the  people  of  the  place.  She  worked  her  engines 
eighteen  days." 

The  sworn  statement  of  Stephen  Rogers,  the 
sailing-master  of  the  Savannah,  made  at  New 
London,  Connecticut,  May  2,  1856. 

Paragraphs  in  the  London  Times,  June  2 1  and  30, 
18 19,  and  Loyd's  List,  June  20,  18 19. 

Several  paragraphs  in  other  London  and  Liver- 
pool papers  of  the  months  of  June  and  July, 
1 819.  Also  paragraphs  in  English  and  American 
papers  recording  the  movements  of  the  vessel  in 
her  further  voyage  to  Copenhagen,  Stockholm,  and 
St.  Petersburg. 

The  log-book  of  the  Savannah  contains  ninety- 


FIRST  TRANSATLANTIC  STEAM  VOYAGE,  323 


six  pages  of  coarse  paper,  nineteen  and  one  half 
inches  long  and  twelve  inches  wide.  The  book  is 
not  bound,  but  the  sheets  are  stitched  together  and 
sewn  into  a  cover  of  sail-cloth,  which  is  bound  at 
its  upper  and  lower  edges.  The  cover  bears  the 
words  Steamship  Savannah's  Log-Book  "  in  large, 
square  letters.  Fifty  pages  are  written  upon  and 
the  remainder  are  blank.  The  handwriting  is  that 
of  Stephen  Rogers,  sailing-master,  and,  though 
somewhat  dimmed  by  age,  the  ink  is  still  black  and 
the  entire  journal  is  legible.  The  first  page  has 
the  caption  : 

A  journal  of  a  voyage  from  New  York  towards 
Savannah  on  board  steamship  Savannah ;  Moses 
Rogers,  Master." 

The  caption  is  the  same  on  the  second,  third, 
and  fourth  pages.    On  the  fifth  page  it  changes  to 

A  harbour  journal  on  board  steamship  Savannah  ; 
Moses  Rogers,  Master."  A  few  pages  further  on 
it  changes  again,  and  reads:  A  journal  of  a  voyage 
from  Savannah  towards  Liverpool  on  board  steam- 
ship Savannah  ;  Moses  Rogers,  Master." 

Judging  by  the  log-book  of  the  Savannah,  Ste- 
phen Rogers  was  better  versed  in  the  teachings  of 
Bowditch's  Navigator  than  in  those  of  Murray's 
Grammar  or  Webster's  Spelling-Book.  The  first 
entry  in  the  log  is  as  follows  : 

''Sunday  March  28th  1819.  These  24  hours  be- 
gins with  fresh  breezes  at  N.  W.     At  10  a.m.  got 


324 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


under  way  for  Sea  with  the  crew  on  board.  At 
I  P.M.  the  pilot  left  the  Ship  at  Sandy  hook  light." 
The  second  entry  reads  : 

''Remarks  on  board  Monday  March  29th  1819. 
These  24  hours  begins  with  fresh  breezes  and  clear. 
At  4  P.M.  the  Hilands  of  Neversink  bore  N.  b.  W. 
6  leagues  distant  from  which  I  take  my  departure. 
At  10  P.M.  took  in  Topgallant  Sails.  At  6  a.m. 
Set  Topgallant  Sails.  At  8  a.m.  Tacked  Ship  to 
the  Westward.  Saw  a  brig  and  Schooner  Steering 
to  the  Westward.  At  11  a.m.  took  in  the  Mizon 
and  Fore  Top  gallant  Sails.  At  11  a.m.  got  the 
steam  up  and  it  come  on  to  blow  fresh  we  took  the 
Wheels  in  on  deck  in  30  minute.  At  meridian 
fresh   breezes    and    Cloudy.      Lat.   by  Obs.  39° 

19. 

On  the  vSaturday  following  the  departure  from 
New  York  the  book  says  :  ''  These  24  hours  begins 
calm  and  pleasant.  Used  Wheels  middle  of  the 
Day." 

The  sailing-master  was  not  inclined  to  rhetorical 
phrases,  as  the  book  is  singularly  laconic  in  style. 
An  entry  on  May  12th  says  :  Daniel  Claypit  cut 
his  left  thum  off,  the  Doctor  done  it  up  and  then 
bled  James  Monroe."  On  May  19th  it  tells  us  that 
''John  Western  comeing  on  board  from  the  shore 
fell  of  the  Plank  and  was  Drounded.  He  was  a 
native  of  Massachusetts,  Town  of  Gray.  At  10 
a.m.  cought  John  Western  with  a  boat-hook  and 


FIRST  TRANSATLANTIC  STEAM  VOYAGE,  325 


jury  was  held  over  him  braught  in  accerdental  Deth 
took  him  on  board  the  Ship  and  put  him  in  a 
Coffin." 

The  departure  on  May  2 2d  for  the  first  transat- 
lantic steam  voyage  is  recorded  in  the  brief  words, 
''Got  steam  up  and  at  9  a.m.  started."  The  daily 
records  from  this  time  on  usually  open  with  the 
words,  ''  These  24  hours  begins  with,"  etc.  On  the 
22d  June  they  ''stopped  the  Wheels  to  clean  the 
clinkers  out  of  the  furnice,  a  hevy  head  sea,  at  6 
P.M.  started  Wheels  again  ;  at  2  a.m.  took  in  the 
Wheels." 

The  coast  of  Ireland  was  sighted  on  the  17th  of 
June,  and  on  the  17th  the  Savannah  "was  boarded 
by  the  King's  Cutter  Kite,  Lieutenant  John 
Bowie."  In  a  subsequent  letter  to  the  New  Lon- 
don Gazette  Stephen  Rogers  says  :  "  She  [the 
steamer]  was  seen  from  the  telegraph  station  at 
Cape  Clear,  on  the  southern  coast  of  Ireland,  and 
reported  as  a  ship  on  fire.  The  admiral,  who 
lay  in  the  Cove  of  Cork,  despatched  one  of  the 
king's  cutters  to  her  relief.  But  great  was  their 
wonder  at  their  inability,  with  all  sail  on  a  fast 
vessel,  to  come  up  with  a  ship  under  bare  poles. 
After  several  shots  were  fired  from  the  cutter  the 
engine  was  stopped,  and  the  surprise  of  her  crew 
at  the  mistake  they  had  made,  as  well  as  their  curi- 
osity to  see  the  singular  Yankee  craft,  can  be  easily 
imagined.    They  asked  permission  to  go  on  board, 


326 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


and  were  much  gratified  by  the  inspection  of  this 
naval  novelty." 

Two  days  later  they  ''shipped  the  wheels  and 
furled  the  sails  and  run  into  the  River  Murcer,  and 
at  6  P.M.  come  to  anchor  off  Liverpool  with  the 
small  bower  anchor." 

The  steamer  caused  a  great  deal  of  excitement 
not  only  among  the  sailors  and  ship-owners,  but 
the  entire  population  of  Liverpool.  She  was  com- 
pelled to  wait  at  the  bar  several  hours  for  the  turn 
of  the  tide,  and  the  news  of  her  coming  was  spread 
through  the  streets.  As  she  came  to  anchor  the  ship- 
ping, wharves,  and  roofs  of  houses  were  crowded 
with  people  anxious  to  see  the  steamship  from 
America.  During  her  stay  in  Liverpool  the  Savan- 
nah was  visited  by  great  crowds,  and  among  them 
were  merchants  and  naval  officers  who  made  many 
inquiries  about  her  speed,  destination,  and  other 
particulars.  She  left  on  the  23d  of  July,  ''getting 
under  way  with  Steam,  and  a  large  fleet  of  Vessels 
in  company."  Touching  at  Copenhagen  and  Stock- 
holm  on  her  way  to  St.  Petersburg,  the  Savannah 
attracted  much  attention.  At  Stockholm  she  was 
visited  by  the  king,  and  also  by  "the  i\merican 
Minister  and  Lady  and  all  the  Furran  Minersters 
and  their  Ladyes." 

At  St.  Petersburg  she  was  visited  by  the  Lord 
High  Admiral  of  the  Russian  navy  and  by  other 
distinguished  officials,  with  whom  she  made  an 


FIJ^Sl'  TRAh^SATLANTIC  STEAM   VOYAGE,  327 


excursion  to  Cronstadt.  She  sailed  from  St.  Peters- 
burg on  her  return  to  Savannah  on  the  loth  of  Oc- 
tober and  reached  her  destination  November  30th. 

After  her  return  it  was  not  deemed  advisable  to 
continue  her  as  a  steamship  ;  her  engines  and 
boiler  were  removed  and  sold  to  the  proprietors 
of  the  Allaire  Works,  of  New  York,  for  $1,600. 
The  engine  w^as  used  for  other  purposes  for  a  good 
many  years,  and  at  the  time  of  the  World's  Fair 
in  New  York  (1856)  the  original  cylinder  of  the 
Savannah  was  on  exhibition,  and  with  it  the  log- 
book of  the  ship.  Before  the  removal  of  the 
engines  the  Savannah  was  sent  to  Washington,  as 
appears  from  the  log,  but  the  government  did  not 
buy  her.  She  afterwards  ran  as  a  sailing  packet 
between  New  York  and  Savannah,  and  was  ulti- 
mately lost  on  the  south  side  of  Long  Island, 
where  so  many  ships  have  laid  their  bones  to  rest. 

Among  the  souvenirs  of  the  voyage  retained  by  the 
descendants  of  the  captain  and  sailing-master  are 
a  gold  snuff-box,  presented  to  the  latter  by  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia,  and  a  massive  gold-lined  tea-kettle, 
whose  story  is  told  by  the  following  inscription  : 

Presented  to  Captain  Moses  Rogers,  of  the 
steamship  Savannah  (being  the  first  steam  vessel 
that  had  crossed  the  Atlantic),  by  Sir  Thomas  Gra- 
ham, Lord  Lynedock,  a  passenger  from  Stockholm 
to  St.  Petersburg,  September  15,  i8ig." 

There  is  a  popular  tradition  that  on  the  day  the 


328 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Steamship  Savannah  entered  the  harbor  of  Liver- 
pool, a  pamphlet  was  published  by  Dr.  Lardner  in 
which  that  gentleman  demonstrated  the  impossi- 
bility of  crossing  the  Atlantic  with  a  steamship. 
The  London  Nautical  Magazine  for  March,  1837, 
uses  the  following  words  : 

The  time  is  fast  approaching  when  the  famous 
prophecy  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dionysus  Lardner,  de- 
livered in  Dublin  and  re-delivered  in  Bristol,  '  that 
it  is  as  easy  to  go  to  the  moon  as  to  go  direct  from 
a  port  in  England  to  New  York,'  will  be  tested." 
Then  follows  an  account  of  the  efforts  that  the 
rival  companies,  the  Great  Western  and  the  British 
and  North  American,  were  making  to  establish 
steam  navigation  across  the  Atlantic. 

In  the  Museum  of  Sciences  and  Arts,"  vol.  x. 
(1856),  Dr.  Lardner  emphatically  denied  the  use 
of  the  language  imputed  to  him.  What  I  did 
affirm  in  1836-37,"  said  he,  ''was  that  the  long  sea 
voyages  by  steam  which  were  contemplated  could 
not  at  that  time  be  maintained  with  the  regularity 
and  certainty  which  are  indispensable  to  commer- 
cial success,  by  any  revenue  which  could  be  expected 
from  the  traffic  alone,  and  that  without  a  govern- 
ment subsidy  of  a  considerable  amount  such  lines 
of  steamers,  although  they  might  be  started,  could 
not  be  permanendy  maintained." 

Dr.  Lardner  was  born  in  1 793,  and,  conse- 
quently, was  but  twenty-six  years  old  at  the  time 


TRANSA  TLA  N  TIC  NA  VIGA  TION. 


of  the  Savannah's  voyage.  He  had  graduated 
from  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  two  years  before, 
and  was  still  a  resident  member  of  the  university, 
devoting  his  attention  to  mathematics.  In  1828 
he  published  Popular  Lectures  on  the  Steam-En- 
gine,''  for  which  the  Royal  Society  of  Dublin  gave 
him  a  gold  medal.  In  this  volume  he  used  the  fol- 
lowing words  : 

Among  the  various  ways  in  which  the  steam- 
engine  has  ministered  to  the  social  progress  of  our 
race,  none  is  more  important  and  interesting  than 
the  aid  it  has  afforded  to  navigation.  Before  it 
lent  its  giant  powers  to  that  art,  locomotion  over 
the  deep  was  attended  with  a  degree  of  danger  and 
uncertainty,  which  seemed  so  necessary  and  so  in- 
evitable, that,  as  a  common  proverb,  it  became  the 
type  and  representative  of  every  thing  else  which 
was  precarious  and  perilous.  The  application, 
however,  of  steam  to  navigation,  has  rescued  the 
mariner  from  much  of  the  peril  of  the  winds  and 
waves  ;  and  even  in  its  actual  state,  apart  from  the 
improvements  it  is  still  likely  to  receive,  it  has  ren- 
dered all  voyages  of  moderate  length  as  safe  and 
regular  as  journeys  over  land. 

We  are  even  now  upon  the  brink  of  such  im- 
provements as  will  probably  so  extend  the  powers 
of  the  steam-engine  as  to  render  it  available  as  the 
means  of  connecting  the  most  distant  points  of  the 
earth." 


330 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


When  we  remember  that  this  was  written  before 
any  ship  propelled  entirely  by  steam  had  crossed 
the  Atlantic,  we  should  commend  Dr.  Lardner  for 
his  prophetic  vision,  rather  than  censure  him  for 
words  which  he  declares  most  positively  never  to 
have  uttered. 

In  1827  a  company  of  merchants  of  Amsterdam 
and  Rotterdam  united  for  the  purpose  of  establish- 
ing a  steam  line  to  the  West  Indies.  They  ordered 
from  a  Scotch  builder  on  the  Clyde  a  steamer  of 
three  hundred  and  fifty  tons  burthen  and  one  hun- 
dred horse-power,  which  they  called  the  Curacoa. 
She  was  despatched  from  Amsterdam  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1829  (another  account  says  from  Antwerp 
in  August,  1828)  for  Curacoa  in  the  Dutch  West 
Indies.  She  made  several  voyages,  but  the  enter- 
prise was  not  commercially  successful,  and  was 
abandoned  in  1830  or  '31.  This  was  the  second 
steamer  to  make  the  transatlantic  voyage. 

The  third  steamship  to  cross  the  Atlantic  was  the 
Royal  William,  built  at  Quebec  for  the  Quebec  and 
Halifax  Steam  Navigation  Company.  She  was 
towed  to  Montreal  and  fitted  with  side-lever  ma- 
rine engines  built  by  Bennett  &  Henderson,  and 
soon  after  they  were  ready,  she  returned  under 
steam  to  Quebec  and  started  on  her  voyage. 
While  steaming  through  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence, she  was  fired  upon  by  one  of  the  British 
frigates,  and  was   compelled  to  lie  to  until  she 


EARLY  STEAMERS  ON  THE  ATLANTIC. 


could  be  examined  to  show  there  was  nothing 
diabolical  about  her.  She  carried  a  few  passen- 
gers, but  no  cargo,  as  all  her  storage  room  was  re- 
quired for  coal.  She  reached  the  Thames  in  safety, 
and  was  there  sold  to  the  Spanish  Government.  She 
was  re-christened  Isabella  Second,  and  became  the 
first  war  steamer  of  the  Spanish  navy. 

His  Britannic  Majesty's  steamer  Rhodamanthus 
is  said  to  have  reached  Barbadoes  May  17,  1832, 
from  Portsmouth,  England.  Previous  to  her  de- 
parture the  Portsmouth  Herald  said:  ''We  are 
anxious  to  learn  what  may  be  the  effect  of  the 
climate  on  the  engines,  fittings,  etc." 

The  above  statement  is  from  Admiral  Preble's 
record,  and  would  indicate  that  the  Rhodamanthus 
was  the  fourth  steam  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlantic- 
But  as  she  was  a  war  vessel,  and  not  a  commercial 
steamer,  we  will  leave  her  out  of  consideration,  and 
reofard  the  British  steamer  Sirius  as  entitled  to  the 
fourth  place  on  the  list.  The  Sirius  sailed  from 
Cork  April  4,  1838,  and  arrived  at  New  York  on 
the  morning  of  April  23d. 

The  steamship  Great  Western  sailed  from  Bris- 
tol four  days  later  than  the  Sirius,  and  reached  New 
York  in  the  afternoon  of  the  23d  of  April,  thus 
making  herself  the  fifth  on  the  list.  The  Sirius 
was  of  700  tons  and  2  5o-horse  power,  and  the 
Great  Western  of  1,340  tons  and  450-horse  power. 
The  latter  was  built  expressly  for  the  transatlantic 


332 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


service,  while  the  Sirius  was  chartered  by  a  com- 
pany then  engaged  in  building  the  British  Queen, 
which  was  intended  to  be  the  most  wonderful  craft 
afloat. 

The  company  which  sent  out  the  Sirius  was  or- 
ganized by  Dr.  Junius  Smith,  an  American,  who 
graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1802,  and  spent  the 
most  of  his  life  in  London.  Crossing  the  Atlantic 
in  1832,  he  was  fifty-four  days  from  London  to 
New  York,  and  thirty-two  from  New  York  to 
Plymouth  on  his  return.  Writing  to  a  friend  in 
New  York  under  date  of  London,  June  28,  1833, 
he  says  : 

Thirty-two  days  from  New  York  to  Plymouth 
is  no  trifle.  Any  ordinary  sea-going  steamer 
would  have  run  it,  with  the  weather  we  had,  in  fif- 
teen days,  with  ease.  I  shall  not  relinquish  the 
project  unless  I  finci  it  absolutely  impracticable." 

He  introduced  the  subject  to  the  merchants  and 
bankers  of  London,  but  did  not  receive  much  en- 
couragement. Most  of  those  to  whom  he  talked 
scouted  the  idea  as  visionary,  and  he  further  had 
the  opposition  of  all  who  were  interested  in  sailing 
ships,  of  every  name  and  kind.  He  was  ridiculed 
as  a  dreamer,  and  more  than  one  respectable  man 
of  wealth  suggested  that  his  proper  place  was  a 
lunatic  asylum.  It  was  the  story  of  Fulton  over 
again,  and  the  story  of  many  an  inventor  in 
England  and  America. 


EARLY  STEAMERS  ON  THE  ATLANTIC.  333 


Dr.  Smith  issued  a  prospectus  proposing  a 
capital  of  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterHng 
for  building  ships  of  one  thousand  tons  each.  No 
one  was  inclined  to  invest,  and  then  he  issued  a 
second,  and  afterwards  a  third  prospectus,  calling 
for  more  money,  and  proposing  larger  ships.  The 
third  prospectus  called  for  a  million  pounds,  and 
proposed  ships  of  two  thousand  tons.  He  accom- 
panied his  proposal  by  a  careful  calculation  based 
upon  known  facts  in  the  commerce  of  the  two 
countries  that  were  to  be  united  by  the  new  mode 
of  navigating  the  ocean. 

As  a  last  resort,  he  borrowed  the  use  of  the 
names  of  influential  gentlemen  to  serve  as  di- 
rectors, a  plan  not  unknown  at  the  present  time, 
and  in  this  way  floated  his  company  into  existence. 
In  July,  1836,  he  opened  the  subscription  books 
of  the  company.  The  stock  was  subscribed,  and 
as  soon  as  enough  had  been  allotted  for  building 
a  steamer,  the  contract  was  made  for  the  first  ves- 
sel. Curling  &  Young,  of  Blackwall,  were  the 
contractors,  and  the  ship  is  thus  described  in  a  let- 
ter from  Dr.  Smith  to  a  New  York  correspondent  : 

"  I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  you  that  the  directors 
of  the  '  British  and  American  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany '  have  contracted  for  the  building  of  the  largest,  and 
intended  to  be  the  most  splendid,  steamship  ever  built,  ex-^ 
pressly  for  the  New  York  and  London  trade.  She  will 
measure  one  thousand  seven  hundred  tons,  two  hundred 
feet  keel,  forty  feet  beam,  three  decks,  and  every  thing  in 


334 


ROBER  T  FULTON. 


proportion.  She  will  carry  two  engines,  of  225-horse  power 
each,  76-inch  cylinder,  and  nine-feet  stroke.  The  expense 
of  this  steam  frigate  is  estimated  at  ^60,000.  These  large 
undertakings  require  time  to  mature,  but  I  think  the  busi- 
ness will  at  last  be  done  effectually." 

The  contract  for  the  engines  was  taken  by  a 
Glasgow  firm,  Claude,  Girdwood,  &  Co.,  that 
failed  when  the  work  was  about  two  thirds  corn- 
completed.  A  new  contract  was  made  with 
Robert  Napier,  of  Glasgow,  and  the  plans  were 
changed,  so  as  to  make  the  steamer  of  2,400  tons. 
The  failure  and  bankruptcy  of  the  engine-makers 
and  the  changes  in  the  plans  for  the  ship  caused  a 
year's  delay.  The  Great  Western  Steamship 
Company,  a  rival  concern,  had  arisen  and  built  the 
steamer  Great  Western,  and  for  fear  of  losing  the 
prestige  of  being  the  first  to  cross  the  Atlantic, 
the  British  and  North  American  Company  char- 
tered the  Sirius  and  sent  her  on  the  voyage  al- 
ready mentioned  before  their  own  steamer  was 
ready  for  the  water. 

The  new  steamer  was  the  British  Queen.  She 
started  on  her  first  voyage  in  July,  1839,  made 
the  passage  from  London  to  New  York  in  fourteen 
and  a  half  days,  without  accident  or  detention. 
Both  the  Great  Western  and  the  British  Queen 
were  followed  by  other  steamers  of  their  respective 
companies,  and  thus   was  fairly  inaugurated  the 

steam  bridge  over  the  Atlantic." 


PROSPECTUS, 


335 


We  will  close  this  chapter  with  the  final  pros- 
pectus of  the  British  and  American  Steam  Navi- 
gation Company,  issued  during  the  summer  of 
1838.  Considered  in  its  relations  to  the  immense 
business  of  transatlantic  navigation,  the  paper 
possesses  much  interest. 

^'  British  and  American  Steam  Navigation  Company. 
"Capital,  ^i, 000,000,  in  10,000  Shares  of  ;^ioo  Each. 

"  DIRECTORS  : 

Henry  Bainbridge,  Esq.,  Chairman. 
"  Chas.  Enderby,  Esq.  Col.  Aspinwall,  U.  S.  Consul. 

Capt.  Thomas  Larkins.      Junius  Smith,  Esq. 
"  Capt.  Robert  Locke.         Jos.  Robinson  Pirn,  Esq., 

[Liverpool. 

Capt.  Robl.  Isaacke.  Jas.  Beale,  Esq.,  Cork. 

Paul  Twigg,  Esq.,  Dublin. 
Bankers — Messrs.   Puget,  Bainbridge  &  Co.,  12  St. 
Paul's  Churchyard. 

Secretary — Macgregor  Laird,  Esq. 

The  object  of  this  company  is  to  establish  a  regular 
and  certain  communication  by  steamship  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States.  The  vessels  are  intended 
to  depart  alternately  from  London  and  Liverpool  to  New 
York  ;  their  average  passage  will  not  exceed  fifteen  days. 
The  company's  first  vessel,  the  British  Queen,  has  capaci- 
ty for  five  hundred  passengers,  twenty-five  days'  fuel,  and 
eighty  tons  measurement  goods,  exclusive  of  provisions, 
stores,  etc. 

The  successful  voyages  of '  Sirius  '  and  ^  Great  Western  ' 
steamships  having  placed  the  success  of  the  undertaking 
beyond  a  doubt,  the  directors  are  now  preparing  contracts 


336 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


for  other  vessels  of  similar  description  to  the  ^  British 
Queen/  and  will  be  able  in  1839  despatch  their  vessels 
for  New  York  on  the  1st  and  i6th  of  each  month  from 
London  and  Liverpool  alternately. 

Applications  for  shares  may  be  made  to  Macgregor 
Laird,  Esq.,  at  the  company's  office,  78  Cornhill  ;  to  Bux- 
endale,  Tathem,  Upton,  and  Johnston,  7  Great  Man- 
chester Street,  London  ;  to  Isaac  Miller,  Esq.,  Liverpool; 
and  to  Boyle,  Low,  Pain,  &  Co.,  Duane  Street,  Dublin.'* 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


How  the  Great  Western  Steamship  Company  was  organized — Samuel  Cunard 
and  his  enterprises — The  Cunard  Company — Cutting  out  the  Britannia 
— Iron  taking  the  place  of  wood  for  ship-building — Adoption  of  the 
screw — Growth  of  steamers — Umbria  and  Etruria  compared  with  Britan- 
nia— Steamers  never  heard  from — American  steamship  lines. 

THE  Sirius  made  two  voyages  to  America  and 
was  then  hauled  off  and  put  into  other  em- 
ployment. The  Great  Western  ran  regularly  be- 
tween Bristol  and  New  York  for  eight  years,  when 
she  was  sold  to  the  West  India  Royal  Mail  Steam- 
Packet  Company,  and  continued  in  its  service  until 
1856.  She  was  broken  up  in  1857  at  Vauxhall,  as 
she  could  not  then  compete  favorably  with  the 
new  class  of  steamships. 

The  Great  Western  Steamship  Company,  of 
which  the  initial  ship  bore  the  name,  is  said  to 
have  been  organized  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 
Brunei,  the  famous  engineer  who  built  the  tunnel 
under  the  Thames.  At  a  meeting  of  the  directors 
of  the  Great  Western  Railway  Company,  one  of 
those  officials  spoke  of  the  great  length  of  the  pro- 
posed line  from  London  to  Bristol.  Brunei  re- 
marked :     Why  not  make  it  longer,  and  have  a 


338 


KOBERT  FULTON, 


Steamboat  to  go  from  Bristol  to  New  York  and 
call  it  the  Great  Western  ? " 

Brunei's  suggestion  was  at  first  regarded  as 
a  joke,  but  after  reflection  some  of  the  directors 
took  it  in  sober  earnest.  The  idea  grew  as  they 
pondered  on  it ;  the  British  and  American  Steam- 
ship Company  was  getting  into  shape  and  it  was 
thought  a  good  scheme  to  enter  the  same  field.  A 
committee  was  appointed  to  visit  the  great  ship- 
building ports  in  the  kingdom  and  collect  informa- 
tion. In  the  report  of  this  committee  Mr.  Brunei 
suggested  that  the  larger  the  steamer  the  greater 
would  be  its  carrying  capacity  in  proportion  to  the 
expense  of  running  her.  According  to  his  figures 
a  vessel  twice  the  size  of  another  would  encounter 
four  times  the  resistance  at  a  given  speed  but 
would  have  eight  times  the  carrying  capacity.  On 
this  principle  the  Great  Western  "  was  built,  and 
the  same  idea  was  carried  out  in  the  construction  of 
the  British  Queen  belonging  to  the  rival  company. 

The  Great  Western  was  launched  July  19,  1837. 
The  following  are  her  dimensions,  which  the  non- 
nautical  reader  may  skip  : 

Length  between  perpendiculars,  212  feet  ;  length  of 
keel  on  the  blocks,  205  feet;  length  of  saloon,  75  feet; 
length  over  all,  from  figure-head  to  taffrail,  235  feet; 
breadth  between  paddle-wheels,  34  feet  4  inches  ;  depth 
under  deck  to  the  top  of  floors,  23  feet  3  inches  ;  scantling 
floors  on  side  of  keel,  15  inches,  sided  ;  ditto,  moulded,  16 


THE  GREA  T  WESTERN  STEAMSHIP, 


339 


inches  ;  length  of  floors,  24  feet ;  thickness  of  bends,  7 
inches ;  bottom  plank,  5  inches  ;  diagonal  riders,  5  inches, 
3  feet  apart  ;  sheer  streaks,  5  inches ;  upper-deck  clamps, 
8  inches;  iron  diagonals,  4  inches  by  f  ;  bilge  planks,  6 
inches;  keelson,  20  by  21  inches. 

'^Tonnage,  1,320  tons;  best  berths,  150;  berths  for 
crew,  26  ;  berths  for  engineers,  firemen,  and  officers,  40 ; 
two  engines,  by  Maudsley  &  Field,  400-horse  power,  200 
each  ;  diameter  of  cylinder  inches  ;  length  of  stroke, 
7  feet ;  coal  stowage,  600  tons,  or  enough  for  thirty  tons 
per  day  for  twenty  days. 

HerAvhole  cost  amounted  to  about  ^50,000;  ^21,373 
15^.  \od.  was  expended  for  ship-building,  ^13,500  for  en- 
gines, about  ^1,000  for  furniture,  painting,  bedding,  and 
fittings  generally  for  the  grand  saloon,  and  the  remainder 
for  rigging,  equipment,  coal,  and  stores." 

The  foregoing  description  is  from  the  New  York 
Express  of  April  24,  1838.     The  same  paper  says  : 

"  The  *  Sirus  '  is  a  beautiful  model,  700  tons,  320-horse 
power,  schooner-rigged.  Notwithstanding  rough  weather 
she  came  over  with  perfect  safety.  Passengers  w^ere  de- 
lighted with  her  performance.  Her  boilers  were  supplied 
with  fresh  water  by  a  distilling  apparatus  which  converted 
the  salt  into  fresh  water.  The  distilling  worms  (small 
copper  tubes)  measured,  as  reported,  nearly  four  miles  !  " 

The  two  companies  that  estabHshed  transatlantic 
navigation  were  not  to  have  the  field  to  themselves. 
A  Liverpool  merchant,  Sir  John  Tobin,  built  a 
steamer  called  the  Liverpool,  and  despatched  her 
for  New  York  on  October  20,  1838.  She  put 
back  to  Cork  on  the  26th  of  the  same  month,  and 


340 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


sailed  again  on  the  6th  of  November.  She  made 
the  voyage  in  sixteen  and  a  half  days,  reaching 
New  York  November  23d.  The  Liverpool  was 
originally  of  1,150  tons,  but  she  was  afterwards  in- 
creased to  1,543  tons.  She  made  six  voyages  to 
New  York  and  back,  and  was  then  transferred  to 
the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Company,  in  whose 
service  she  was  wrecked  in  1846  off  Cape  Finis- 
terre.  After  her  increase  in  length  and  tonnage 
she  was  called  the  Great  Liverpool.  Her  speed 
was  never  equal  to  that  of  the  Great  Western, 
which  once  made  the  voyage  from  New  York  to 
Liverpool  in  twelve  and  a  half  days. 

The  earliest  of  the  transatlantic  lines  now  in  ex- 
istence was  also  one  of  the  earliest  that  was  formed 
at  all.  Samuel  Cunard,  a  merchant  of  Halifax,  had 
a  line  of  sailing  packets  between  that  port  and  Eng- 
land ;  they  were  not  famous  for  speed,  and  the  en- 
terprising Cunard  thought  and  dreamed  of  repla- 
cing them  by  steamers.  In  1838  he  went  to  Eng- 
land with  the  viev/  of  carrying  out  his  plans,  and 
obtained  an  introduction  to  David  Napier,  the  cele- 
brated marine  engineer.  Cunard  gave  an  order  for 
the  building  of  four  steamers  of  800  tons  each  ; 
Napier  recommended  larger  ships,  and  it  was 
finally  agreed  to  make  them  of  about  1,200  tons 
burthen  and  440-horse  power.  But  this  required 
more  money  than  Cunard  could  command  at  the 
time,  and  he  decided  to  form  a  company. 


THE  CUNARD  COMPANY. 


There  had  formerly  been  two  rival  lines  of  coast- 
ing steamers  between  Liverpool  and  Glasgow,  one 
owned  by  the  Messrs.  Maclver  of  Liverpool,  and 
the  other  by  Messrs.  Burns  of  Glasgow.  After 
years  of  keen  competition  these  firms  were  amalga- 
mated, and  the  combined  concern  was  very  pros- 
perous when  Cunard  appeared  with  his  proposal  to 
form  a  steamship  company  for  navigating  the  At- 
lantic. Burns  &  Maclver  ''caught  on  "  at  once, 
and  in  1839  the  ''British  and  North  American 
Royal  Mail  Steam-Packet  Company"  was  formed. 
The  time  of  an  ordinary  citizen  is  too  brief  for  the 
frequent  pronunciation  of  the  foregoing  title  in  full, 
so  custom  has  abbreviated  it  to  "  Cunard  Line,"  by 
which  it  is  universally  known.  Samuel  Cunard  may 
be  considered  the  father  of  the  line  which  bears  his 
name  and  has  been  in  steady  operation  since  1840. 

About  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  company 
the  British  Government  advertised  for  tenders  for 
carrying  the  mails  by  steam  from  England  to  Hali- 
fax. The  Cunard  Company  obtained  the  contract 
for  a  fortnightly  service  each  way  between  Liver- 
pool and  Halifax,  Boston,  and  Quebec  ;  the  contract 
was  to  run  for  seven  years,  at  ^60,000  a  year. 
The  original  plan  had  been  to  run  between  Liver- 
pool and  Halifax,  and  send  a  branch  steamer  to 
Boston,  but  in  making  the  contract  the  plans  were 
changed,  and  the  latter  city  was  made  the  western 
terminus  of  the  line.      The    keels   of  the  four 


342 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Steamers  then  on  the  stocks  were  broken  up,  and 
new  steamers  of  larger  size  were  put  into  construc- 
tion. The  first  four  ships  of  the  Cunard  line  were 
the  Britannia,  Acadia,  Caledonia,  and  Columbia. 
The  Britannia  sailed  from  Liverpool  July  4,  1840, 
and  reached  Boston  on  the  1 8th  of  the  same  month, 
fourteen  days  and  eight  hours  between  the  two 
ports. 

The  Britannia  was  not,  however,  the  pioneer  ship 
of  the  Cunard  Company  in  its  transatlantic  enter- 
prise. The  chartered  steamer  Unicorn  was  sent 
from  Liverpool  May  15,  1840,  with  orders  to 
visit  Halifax  and  proceed  to  Boston.  She  had 
twenty-seven  cabin  passengers  for  the  former  place 
and  twenty-four  for  the  latter,  and  brought  Paris 
papers  of  the  13th  of  May,  of  London  the  15th, 
and  of  Liverpool  the  i6th. 

Boston  went  wild  on  the  2d  of  June  over  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Unicorn,  and  she  repeated  the  perform- 
ance on  the  day  the  Britannia  came  in  sight  of 
Long  Wharf  and  the  crowds  that  covered  it.  Mr. 
Cunard  was  a  passenger  by  the  Britannia,  and  re- 
ceived eighteen  hundred  invitations  to  dinner 
within  twenty-four  hours  after  he  arrived  !  The 
cannon  of  the  forts  and  of  the  war-ships  in  the  har- 
bor thundered  a  welcome,  there  was  a  notable 
gathering  in  Fanueil  Hall,  fireworks  were  let  off  in 
the  evening,  and  the  entire  city  was  in  a  blaze  of 
glory. 


CUTTING  OUT  THE  BRITANNIA, 


343 


The  Acadia  arrived  on  the  1 7th  of  August, 
twelve  days  and  eighteen  hours  from  Liverpool. 
Three  days  after  her  arrival  the  event  was  cele- 
brated by  a  public  banquet  at  which  Hon.  Josiah 
Quincy  presided.  Before  the  end  of  1840  all  four 
.ships  were  running  regularly  between  Boston  and 
Liverpool,  touching  at  Halifax  each  way,  and  for 
seven  years  the  terms  of  the  contract  were  per- 
formed to  the  satisfaction  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. 

There  was  not  the  best  of  feeling  between  Bos- 
ton and  New  York  in  regard  to  the  transatlantic 
service,  envious  inhabitants  of  the  latter  village 
having  predicted  that  the  harbor  of  Boston  would 
freeze  in  winter  and  imprison  such  of  the  Cunarders 
as  might  be  there  at  the  time.  Three  years  passed 
without  any  accident  of  this  kind,  but  in  February, 
1844,  the  Ice  King  made  his  appearance,  and  the 
whole  harbor  was  frozen  over.  The  people  had  a 
good  time  on  the  ice  ;  skaters  and  sleighing  parties 
were  out  in  large  numbers  ;  booths  were  established 
for  the  sale  of  refreshments  of  solid  and  liquid 
nature,  and  the  scene  was  a  pleasing  one  to  the 
multitude.  But  the  agent  of  the  Cunard  Line  was 
in  dismay,  as  the  Britannia  was  at  her  dock  and  her 
sailing  day  was  approaching.  Unless  she  could 
get  out  at  the  appointed  time  the  contract  would 
be  broken  and  serious  consequences  might  follow. 

The  pride  of  Boston  was  roused  as  the  prophecy 


344 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


of  New  York  seemed  about  to  be  verified,  and  the 
enterprising  merchants  in  sight  of  Bunker  Hill 
Monument  determined  that  something  must  be 
done.  They  met  one  day  and  resolved  to  cut  a 
channel  for  the  steamer.  The  contract  for  the  job 
was  taken  by  an  ice-cutting  firm  of  Boston,  who 
agreed  to  open  the  way  for  the  steamer  for  ten 
thousand  dollars.  A  channel  one  hundred  feet 
wide  and  nearly  nine  miles  long  was  made  through 
the  ice,  and  at  her  appointed  day  and  hour  the 
Britannia  steamed  away  on  her  regular  voyage. 
The  job  was  completed  only  one  hour  before  the 
sailing-time  of  the  ship.  Since  that  time  ice-boats 
have  been  employed  to  prevent  the  possibility  of 
another  mail-steamer  being  in  a  similar  predica- 
ment. Whenever  there  is  any  likelihood  that  the 
harbor  will  be  frozen,  ice-boats  and  the  numerous 
tugs  belonging  to  the  port  are  set  in  motion,  and 
the  ice  is  broken  up. 

At  the  expiration  of  the  first  contract  for  a  fort- 
nightly service  each  way  a  new  contract  was  made. 
The  service  was  increased  to  a  weekly  one  and  New 
York  and  Boston  were  made  the  ports  of  departure 
on  alternate  Wednesdays.  The  amount  of  the 
subsidy  was  greatly  increased  and  the  company 
was  required  to  build  larger  and  faster  steamers. 

The  four  steamers  with  which  the  Cunard  Com- 
pany began  its  service  in  1840  were  of  about  1,20c 
tons  burthen  and  500-horse  power  each.    As  add* 


IRON  TAKING  THE  PLACE  OF  WOOD,  345 


tions  were  made  to  the  fleet  the  size  and  power  of 
the  steamers  were  increased,  and  this  has  been  the 
case  with  nearly  every  addition  to  the  Hne.  The 
fifth  steamer  was  the  Hibernia,  1,400  tons,  550- 
horse  power  ;  then  followed  the  Cambria  of  the 
same  measurement  ;  then  the  America,  Canada, 
Niagara,  and  Europa,  each  1,800  tons  and  700- 
horse  power  ;  and  then  the  Asia  and  Africa,  each 
2,250  tons  and  800-horse  power.  All  these  were 
paddle  steamers  ;  the  six  largest  of  them  varied  in 
length  from  275  to  300  feet,  and  their  beams  were 
from  40  to  42  feet.  The  paddle-wheels  were  from 
32  to  36  feet  in  diameter  ;  the  cylinders  were  90 
inches  in  diameter,  and  the  length  of  stroke  was 
from  8  to  9  feet. 

Down  to  1852  the  Cunard  fleet  consisted  entirely 
of  wooden  paddle-ships,  but  in  that  year  the  iron 
ships  Andes  and  Alps  were  added.  They  had 
screw  engines  instead  of  paddles,  and  were  followed 
by  the  Jura  and  Etna,  both  iron  screws. 

We  will  leave  for  a  time  the  Cunard  Company 
and  trace  the  history  of  the  iron  screw  steamship. 
The  screw  was  tried  by  many  persons  in  the  early 
days  of  steam  navigation,  and  one  experiment  at 
least — that  of  John  Fitch  in  the  Collect  Pond,  New 
York — belongs  to  the  last  century.  The  credit  of 
the  successful  application  of  the  screw  to  marine 
propulsion  and  its  consequent  adoption  belongs  to 
Captain  John  Ericsson  and  to  the  year  1836,  though 


346 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


it  did  hot  come  into  general  favor  for  more  than  a 
decade  after  that  time. 

Captain  Ericsson  s  patent  was  granted  in  Eng- 
land July  13,  1836.  The  captain  experimented 
with  a  model  boat  in  a  bath  tub,  the  engine  being 
supplied  with  steam  by  a  flexible  pipe  leading  from 
a  steam-boiler  over  the  centre  of  the  tub.  The 
boat  moved  in  a  circular  direction,  in  accordance 
with  the  set  "  of  the  rudder,  at  the  rate  of  three 
miles  an  hour. 

Kis  next  trial  was  with  a  boat  45  feet  long,  8  feet 
beam,  and  3  feet  draft,  and  named  the  Francis  B. 
Ogden,"  in  honor  of  the  American  consul  to  Liver- 
pool, who  had  encouraged  his  efforts  in  devising 
this  new  mode  of  propulsion.  It  had  two  propel- 
lers, each  five  feet  in  diameter,  and  attained  a 
speed  of  ten  miles  an  hour  upon  the  Thames,  in 
April,  1837.  Afterwards  she  towed  schooners  of 
140  tons  seven  miles  an  hour,  and  a  ship  of  650 
tons  five  miles  an  hour.  The  invention  was  laid  be- 
fore the  British  Admiralty  and  rejected  as  impracti- 
cable, all  the  naval  engineers  pronouncing  against  it. 

Capt.  R.  F.  Stockton,  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  was 
then  in  England,  and  on  seeing  the  boat  of  Erics- 
son and  making  a  trial  trip  with  it,  was  convinced 
of  its  practicability.  I  do  not  want,"  said  he, 
''the  opinions  of  scientific  men ;  what  I  have  seen  this 
day  satisfies  me."  He  ordered  on  his  own  account 
two  iron  boats  with  screws  for  the  navigation  of  the 


ADOPTION  OF  THE  SCREW, 


347 


Delaware,  and  immediately  brought  the  matter  be- 
fore his  government. 

The  first  of  the  two  boats  was  named  the  Robert 
F.  Stockton,  and  was  about  70  feet  long,  with  10 
feet  beam.  She  came  to  the  United  States,  under 
sail,  in  April,  1839  I  ^  special  act  of  Congress  was 
passed  to  allow  her  to  run  in  American  waters,  and 
her  name  was  changed  to  New  Jersey.  She  may 
be  regarded  as  the  first  screw  steamer  ever  practi- 
cally used  in  the  United  States,  though  not  the 
first  that  had  been  tried.  She  remained  in  service 
several  years  and  was  the  only  steamboat  capable 
of  towing  through  drift  ice. 

Captain  Stockton's  influence  was  sufficient  to 
induce  the  United  State  Government  to  try  the  ex- 
periment of  the  screw  for  propelling  ships  of  war, 
and  in  1843  orders  were  given  for  the  construction 
of  the  Princeton,  the  first  screw-propelled  war 
steamer  the  world  ever  saw.  Ericsson  designed 
the  engines  and  machinery  so  that  every  thing  was 
below  the  water-line  and  out  of  the  reach  of  shot, 
and  the  furnaces  were  made  for  anthracite  instead 
of  bituminous  coal.  The  funnels  were  telescopic, 
and  consequently  the  ship  could  have  all  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  sailing  vessel  when  the  engines  were 
not  in  use. 

The  Princeton  was  a  second-rate  sloop-of-war, 
164  feet  long  and  30  feet  beam.  She  carried  two 
225-pound  wrought-iron  guns  and  twelve  42-pound 


348 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


carronades,  and  was  considered  in  her  day  a  most 
efficient  ship.  Shortly  after  going  into  commission 
she  raced  with  the  steamship  Great  Western  as  the 
latter  was  leaving  for  a  transatlantic  trip.  She 
easily  passed  the  Great  Western,  steamed  around 
her,  and  passed  her  again  before  the  latter  was  wil- 
ling to  acknowledge  defeat.  The  captain  of  the 
Great  Western  was  aware  of  the  intended  trial  of 
speed,  and  exerted  his  ship  to  her  fullest  power, 
but  to  no  purpose. 

Not  long  after  the  successful  trial  of  the  Prince- 
ton, the  English  and  French  governments  roused 
themselves  to  the  advantages  which  the  new  style 
of  ship  possessed.  The  English  Government 
brought  out  the  Rattler  and  the  French  the  Po- 
mone  —  their  first  screw  war-steamers, — and  both 
governments  ordered  some  of  their  old  sailing 
ships  to  be  fitted  with  screws.  The  Rattler  was 
originally  designed  for  a  paddle  steamer,  but  was 
changed  to  a  screw  soon  after  her  keel  had  been 
laid. 

Previous  to  making  their  determination  concern- 
ing the  Rattler,  the  Admiralty  experimented  with  a 
screw  steamer — the  Archimedes, — which  was  built 
at  government  expense,  but  was  not  armed  for  na- 
val service.  The  screw  that  propelled  her  was  the 
invention  of  Francis  P.  Smith,  whose  patent  was 
taken  out  in  the  same  year  as  that  of  Ericsson,  and 
who  built  an  experimental  boat  about  the  same 


ADOPTION  OF  THE  SCREW. 


349 


time.  Smith  obtained  the  speed  of  his  screw  by 
means  of  gearing,  while  Ericsson  coupled  the  en- 
gine immediately  to  the 
propeller. 

Inventors  have  busied 
themselves  in  improv- 
ing the  form  of  the 
screw,  and  the  varieties 
in  use  are  numerous. 
The  number  of  blades 
or  arms  varies  from  two 
to  five  or  six.  Probably 
there  are  more  four- 
bladed  screws  than  of 
any  other  form,  and 
these  are  mostly  in  the 
merchant  service.  On 


Hodgson's  Screw  Propeller. 


naval  vessels  the  two-bladed  screw  is  more  frequent 
than  any  other,  as  this  form  al- 
lows the  screw  to  be  lifted  out  of 
water  and  suspended  in  a  w^ell  " 
at  the  stern  of  the  ship,  when  it 
is  desired  to  make  use  only  of 
the  sails. 

The  ''pitch"  is  the  distance 
that  the  screw  would  advance 
in  making  a  complete  revolution 
in  a  solid  substance  ;  the  ''thread" 
is  the  distance  along  the  edge  of  the  blade  ;  the 


Ordinary  Form  of  Screw 
Propeller, 


350 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


''angle"  is  the  inclination  of  the  thread  of  the 
screw  to  the  horizon;  the  *'area"  is  the  surface 
of  the  blade  ;  ''length  "  is  the  fraction  of  the  pitch 
that  is  used  ;  "diameter''  is  the  perpendicular  dis- 
tance between  the  extreme  outside  points  of  two 
blades  opposite  each  other. 

In  perfectly  smooth  water  and  with  just  the 
proper  immersion  of  a  vessel,  the  advantages  of 
the  screw  and  paddle  are  about  equal,  but  in  rough 
water,  where  the  paddles  have  a  constantly  vary- 
ing immersion,  it  is  apparent  that  the  screw  is  su- 
perior. So  also  when  the  ship  is  lightened  or 
deepened,  the  paddle  will  be  too  deeply  buried  or 
raised  too  much  out  of  the  water,  which  is  not  the 
case  with  the  screw.  For  inland  navigation  in 
shallow  water  the  paddle-wheel  still  holds  the  first 
place,  but  the  screw  has  completely  driven  the  pad- 
dle from  the  ocean.  Taking  into  consideration  all 
the  conditions  of  a  transatlantic  voyage,  of  rough 
weather,  where  the  paddles  are  alternately  buried 
in  water  or  whirling  in  the  air ;  of  head  winds, 
where  the  paddle-boxes  present  a  large  resisting 
surface  ;  and  the  greater  capacity  of  a  screw  steamer 
for  freight,  it  was  found  that  the  expense  of  a  pad- 
dle steamer  was  nearly  twice  as  much  as  that  of  a 
screw  steamer  of  the  same  capacity  crossing  the 
ocean  in  the  same  time.  The  first  successful  trans- 
atlantic voyage  of  a  screw-propelled  vessel  was  the 
doom  of  the  ocean  paddle  steamer. 


IRON  STEAMERS, 


Though  not  altogether  confined  to  steam  navi- 
gation in  the  advantages  it  presented,  the  invention 
of  the  iron  ship  marked  an  important  step  in  ad- 
vance. It  was  made  quite  early  in  the  history  of 
steam  navigation,  as  a  steamboat  called  the  Cale- 
donia was  built  of  iron  in  Dundee  in  18 18,  to  run 
on  the  river  between  that  city  and  Perth.  Two 
years  later  an  iron  steamboat,  the  Aaron  Manby, 
was  built  in  sections  at  the  Horsley  Iron  Works  and 
put  together  in  London.  She  went  direct  from 
that  city  to  Paris,  and  was  the  first  steam  vessel 
to  make  that  voyage.  She  was  broken  up  in  1855, 
after  being  steadily  in  service  for  thirty-five  years. 

Iron  steamboats  followed  with  considerable 
rapidity.  The  names  of  the  earliest  iron  steam- 
ships in  the  transatlantic  and  other  ocean  traffic 
are  mentioned  elsewhere. 

The  most  energetic  builder  of  iron  steamers  in 
the  early  days  was  William  Fairbairn,  of  Glasgow. 
In  1830  and  1831  he  built  three  iron  vessels  for  the 
trade  between  Liverpool  and  Glasgow,  and  in  the 
succeeding  four  years  he  built  several  iron  steam- 
boats and  steamships  intended  for  different  routes. 
He  then  became  associated  with  the  Lairds  of 
Birkenhead,  and  between  1835  and  1848  the  firm 
had  constructed  upwards  of  one  hundred  first-class 
ships.  Their  example  was  contagious,  and  the  use 
of  iron  in  place  of  wood  became  general  through- 
out the  British  Isles. 


3S2 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Though  more  expensive  than  wood  in  ship-build- 
ing, it  is  found  that  iron  is  cheaper  in  the  end,  as 
an  iron  steamship,  barring  wrecking,  colHsions,  etc., 
will  last  three  times  as  long  as  one  of  wood,  and 
have  greater  carrying  capacity  in  proportion  to  her 
weight  and  displacement.  In  the  last  ten  years 
steel  has  encroached  upon  iron  and  threatens  to 
drive  it  out  of  the  ship-building  field.  A  steel  ship 
weighs  from  ten  to  twenty-five  per  cent,  less  than 
an  iron  ship  of  the  same  displacement  and  speed, 
and  consequently  furnishes  so  much  more  space  for 
the  stowage  of  cargo. 

We  will  now  return  to  the  history  of  the 
Cunarders. 

In  1 855,  stimulated  by  American  competition,  the 
company  had  its  first  iron  paddle  steamer,  the  Persia 
which  was  390  feet  long,  45  feet  broad  on  the  hull, 
and  71  feet  across  the  paddle-boxes.  Her  measure- 
ment was  1,200  tons  more  than  that  of  any  existing 
Cunarder  of  the  time,  and  her  owners  claimed  that 
she  was  by  far  the  finest  ship  that  had  ever  floated. 
She  was  built  with  seven  water-tight  compartments, 
and  great  stress  was  laid  upon  the  advantages  of  this 
novel  mode  of  construction.  Its  novelty  is  less  ap- 
parent to  those  who  have  read  the  travels  of  Marco 
Polo  and  learned  that  the  people  of  Cathay  built  their 
ships  after  this  fashion  six  centuries  ago.^ 

*  "  The  Travels  of  Marco  Polo,"  pages  409,  418,  419,  published  by  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  New  York, 


THE  CUNARDERS. 


353 


In  1862  appeared  the  Scotia,  which  was  to  the 
Persia  and  her  compeers  what  the  latter  had  been 
to  the  Britannia  and  Acadia.  She  was  of  iron  and 
with  paddles  like  the  Persia,  but  was  more  splendid 
in  her  fittings  and  of  greater  dimensions.  Wood 
as  a  material  for  ship-building  was  abandoned  by 
the  Cunard  Company,  and  iron  took  its  place,  to 
be  followed  in  its  turn  by  steel.  The  Scotia  was 
notable  as  being  the  last  paddle  steamer  of  the 
Cunard  line.  She  was  retired  in  the  height  of  her 
popularity  on  account  of  the  excessive  cost  of  run- 
ning her  in  comparison  with  a  screw  steamer  of 
equal  capacity.  She  was  sold,  and  for  a  long 
time  lay  neglected  at  Birkenhead,  opposite  Liver- 
pool. In  1879  she  was  bought  by  the  British  Tele- 
graph Construction  and  Maintenance  Company. 
Her  paddle  engines  were  removed,  and  she  was 
fitted  with  twin-screw  engines  and  sent  to  Asiatic 
waters. 

The  service  of  the  Cunard  Company  includes  the 
lines  between  Liverpool  and  Boston  and  Liverpool 
and  New  York,  the  latter  employing  the  largest 
and  newest  of  the  company's  ships.  Both  these 
lines  are  weekly  each  way  throughout  the  year. 
In  summer  the  New  York  and  Liverpool  service 
is  semi-weekly  each  way.  Then  there  is  a  line 
from  Liverpool  to  all  the  principal  ports  of  the 
Mediterranean  ;  there  are  lines  connecting  Liver- 
pool with  most  of  the  ports  of  the  United  King- 


354 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


dom  ;  steamers  carrying  the  mails  between  Hali- 
fax, Bermuda,  and  St.  Thomas  ;  and  other  steam- 
ers at  work  in  various  parts  of  the  world.  Since 
its  beginning  to  the  present  time  the  Cunard  Com- 
pany has  built  and  owned  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  steamships,  and  has  had  fifty  ships  in  ser- 
vice at  one  time. 

Note  the  growth  in  size  and  carrying  capacity  of 
the  Cunard  steamships.  The  Britannia  measured 
1,139  toi^s,  and  could  carry  225  tons  of  cargo.  The 
Bothnia,  built  in  1874,  measured  4,335  tons,  and 
could  carry  3,000  tons  of  cargo — fourteen  times 
the  carrying  capacity,  with  only  four  times  the 
measurement.  The  Britannia  steamed  knots 
an  hour  and  the  Bothnia  13  knots,  with  less  than 
half  the  amount  of  coal  per  indicated  horse-power, 
and  about  the  same  quantity  of  coal  for  the  dis- 
tance run.  The  Persia  burned  six  tons  of  coal  to 
carry  one  ton  of  freight  across  the  Atlantic,  while 
the  steamers  of  to-day  will  carry  five  tons  of  freight 
for  each  ton  of  coal  consumed. 

But  we  have  not  space  nor  speed  to  follow 
the  history  of  all  the  steamers  of  the  Cunard 
or  any  other  line.  With  a  single  bound  we 
will  come  down  to  the  Umbria  and  Etruria 
— the  latest  additions  to  the  fleet — and  the  reader 
will  please  make  his  own  comparisons  between 
these  ocean  giants  and  the  pigmies  Britannia  and 
Acadia. 


THE  CUNARDERS. 


355 


The  Umbria  and  Etruria  are  sister  ships,  built 
upon  the  same  plans,  and  therefore  a  description 
of  one  will  answer  for  both. 

The  dimensions  of  the  Etruria  are  : 
Length  overall,  5 20 feet ;  breadth  (extreme),  57 
feet  3  inches  ;  depth  to  upper  deck,  41  feet,  and  to 
promenade  deck,  49  feet,  with  a  gross  tonnage  of 
about  8,000  tons.  She  is  entirely  built  of  steel 
throughout,  and  is  divided  into  ten  water-tight 
compartments,  most  of  the  bulkheads  being  car- 
ried up  to  the  upper  deck  and  fitted  with  water- 
proof doors,  giving  access  from  one  part  of  the 
ship  to  the  other.  By  this  arrangement  the  dan- 
ger of  fire  spreading,  should  it  break  out  in  any 
division  of  the  ship,  is  removed  as  far  as  possible, 
and  greater  safety  is  obtained  by  being  able  to 
isolate  any  department  for  sanitary  purposes,  or  in 
case  of  damage  to  the  hull  and  the  compartment 
being  flooded.' 

The  dining  saloon  is  76  feet  long,  extending 
the  full  breadth  of  the  vessel,  the  height  from  beam 
to  beam  being  9  feet.  The  saloon  is  arranged 
with  a  large  cupola  skylight,  fitted  on  the  prome- 
nade deck,  the  total  height  from  the  saloon  floor  at 
the  cupola  being  over  20  feet.  Altogether,  accom- 
modation can  be  provided  for  720  first-class  pas- 
sengers, the  largest  number  of  which  are  arranged 
for  two-berth  staterooms  only,  and  replete  with  all 
fittings  usual  in    the  highest  class  of  passenger 


356 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Steamers,  a  number  of  the  rooms  being  fitted  e7i 
suite  for  family  use.  The  greatest  care  has  been 
taken  in  the  Hghting,  ventilation,  and  sanitary  ar- 
rangements throughout.  The  vessel  is  fitted  with 
three  masts,  full  bark-rigged. 

"  The  boilers  are  of  steel,  like  all  the  rest  of  the 
vessel,  the  hull,  the  crank  shaft,  and  the  more  vital 
parts  of  the  engine.  Compressed  steel  was  used, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  construction  the  close- 
ness of  the  grain  and  the  total  absence  of  the  least 
indication  of  a  flaw  were  remarked  by  the  many 
engineers  who  visited  the  works  during  their  con- 
struction. The  boilers  are  all  ''double-ended" — 
that  is,  they  are  provided  w^ith  a  set  of  furnaces  at 
each  end.  The  flame  passes  to  a  chamber  in  the 
centre,  returns  through  the  tubes,  and  thence  to 
the  funnel.  As  steamers  have  increased  in  size 
and  speed  the  boiler  has  grown,  but  it  has  grown 
in  circumference,  not  in  length.  A  stranger  to  the 
necessities  and  objects  of  the  structure  would  think 
it  disproportionate,  but  experience  has  shown  that 
a  large  steam  space  in  the  boiler  is  the  best  reser- 
voir of  power,  and  a  sure  preventive  of  priming. 
The  engines  are  the  most  powerful  in  the  world. 
They  are  compound,  and  indicate  upwards  of 
14,000-horse  power.  The  three  inverted  cylinders 
each  connect  directly  with  the  built  crank  below. 
The  centre  high-pressure  cylinder  is  71  inches  in  di- 
ameter, the  two  low  pressure  are  each  105  inches. 


THE  CUNARDERS, 


357 


They  have  a  six-feet  stroke,  and  turn  a  screw  of 
manganese  bronze  of  equal  deHcacy,  strength,  and 
accuracy  of  pitch.  The  quaHties  of  manganese 
bronze,  combined  with  the  development  in  practice 
of  the  true  proportions  of  the  screw  propeller,  are 
computed  to  add  upwards  of  a  knot  per  hour  to 
the  performance  of  the  old-fashioned  cast-iron 
blades." 

Before  taking  her  place  on  the  line,  the  Etruria 
made  an  experimental  cruise  around  Ireland,  run- 
ning the  entire  distance  of  805  knots  in  46  hours  ; 
in  one  part  of  this  trip  she  ran  at  the  rate  of  24 
statute  miles  an  hour.  She  was  placed  in  service 
between  Liverpool  and  New  York  in  May, 
1885,  and  during  the  summer  made  the  following 
record : 


WESTWARD. 

D.        H.  M. 

May,      1885,      7,       2,  8 

June,     1885,     6,     22,  33 

July,      1885,      6,     14,  14 

August,  1885,     6,       5,  44 


EASTWARD. 


D. 

H. 

M. 

May, 

1885, 

6, 

12, 

39 

June, 

1885, 

6, 

14 

July, 

1885, 

6, 

14, 

6 

August, 

1885, 

6, 

9, 

10 

Sept., 

1885, 

6, 

7, 

30 

Her  westward  trip  in  August,  1885,  was  the 
best  time  made  by  any  ocean  steamship  up  to  that 
date,  the  best  previous  record  having  been  made 
by  the  Cunard  steamship  Oregon,  in  6  days,  10 
hours,  and  4  minutes. 


358 


ROBERT  FULTOiV. 


The  Etruria's  "  first  day's  running,  counting 
from  2:26  P.M.  till  the  following  noon,  was  424 
knots,  followed  by  464,  450,  465,  464,  464,  and  70 
from  noon  to  3:35  p.m.  on  the  day  of  her  arrival. 

The  distance  which  she  travelled  shows  that  the 
Etruria  maintained  a  speed  of  21^  miles  per  hour 
continuous  steaming  for  the  entire  voyage. 

The  best  single  day's  run  was  made  by  the 
Etruria  on  her  second  voyage  to  the  westward, 
on  which  occasion  she  steamed  481  nautical  miles, 
which  is  equal  to  557  statute  miles,  and  required 
a  speed  of  over  23  miles  per  hour.  To  accomplish 
this  speed,  the  Etruria  and  Umbria  are  said  to 
burn  from  300  to  350  tons  of  coal  every  24  hours. 

The  substitution  of  steel  for  iron  in  the  building 
of  steamers  is  a  very  great  advantage.  Each  of 
the  new  ships  of  the  Cunard  line  weighs  six  hun- 
dred tons  less  than  if  built  equally  strong  of  iron 
and  with  the  same  power  and  displacement.  Conse- 
quently she  has  just  so  much  more  carrying  capacity, 
and  it  is  claimed  that  a  ship  of  steel  is  less  liable  to 
injury  in  certain  accidents  than  one  of  iron  or  wood. 
Not  only  the  plates  but  the  rivets  are  of  steel,  and 
all  plates  and  rivets  are  carefully  tested  before  use. 

In  1859  Lord  Palmerston  recommended  a  baron- 
etcy for  Mr.  Samuel  Cunard,  which  w^as  granted  by 
the  Queen.  Sir  Samuel  left  his  business  and  title  to 
his  son  Edward,  who  died  in  1 869,  leaving  the  title  to 
his  son,  Sir  Bache  Edward  Cunard.    Down  to  1878 


TRANSA  TLANTIC  NA  VIGA  TION, 


359 


the  business  was  conducted  as  a  partnership,  but  in 
that  year  it  was  merged  into  a  Hmited  HabiUty  com- 
pany in  which  the  old  partners  had  a  very  large 
share.  For  many  years  after  its  inception  in  1840 
the  Cunard  line  received  a  heavy  subsidy  from  the 
British  Government  for  the  transportation  of  the 
mails,  but  latterly  its  subsidies  have  been  less  re- 
munerative. At  one  time  it  received  from  this 
source  nearly  a  million  dollars  annually. 

About  8,000  ofificers,  sailors,  stokers,  and  others 
are  constantly  employed  on  the  ships  of  the  Cunard 
Company,  and  4,000  more  on  shore,  at  the  docks, 
machine-shops,  warehouses,  and  offices,  or  12,000 
in  all.  In  a  speech  made  at  the  launching  of  the 
Etruria,  Mr.  John  Burns,  a  director  of  the  com- 
pany, said  that  during  the  previous  year  their  ships 
had  run  the  equivalent  of  six  times  the  distance 
from  the  earth  to  the  moon.  Another  speaker  on 
the  same  occasion  said  the  ships  had  carried  in  one 
direction  in  the  year  just  closing  no  less  than  sev- 
enteen million  letters  and  not  a  mail-bag  had  been 
lost  or  misplaced. 

We  will  now  leave  the  Cunarders  and  return  to 
the  early  days  of  transatlantic  navigation  by  steam. 

The  Great  Britain  was  the  immediate  successor 
of  the  Great  Western  ;  her  keel  was  laid  at  Bristol 
in  1839  she  was  launched  in  1843.  She  was 
originally  intended  for  a  paddle  steamer,  but  owing 
to  difficulty  in  finding  a  contractor  to  make  the 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


shafts  she  was  changed  to  a  propeller.  By  a  ludi- 
crous blunder  she  did  not  leave  the  Cumberland 
docks  at  Bristol  for  more  than  a  year  after  being 
launched,  as  she  was  broader  than  the  docks  and 
unable  to  move  until  they  were  widened.  She  was 
released  in  December,  1844,  and  early  in  the  follow- 
ing year  steamed  around  to  London  to  receive  her 
cargo  for  New  York. 

The  Great  Britain  was  322  feet  long,  51  feet 
beam,  measured  3,448  tons  (old  measurement),  was 
built  of  iron,  and  had  a  propeller  15  feet  in  diame- 
ter. Her  engines  were  of  500-horse  power,  nomi- 
nal, and  she  was  divided  into  six  compartments  ;  she 
was  notable  for  being  one  of  the  first  ocean  steam- 
ers of  iron  and  propelled  by  a  screw,  and  on  one 
occasion  at  least  her  compartments  saved  her  from 
being  a  total  loss.  She  ran  for  several  years 
between  England  and  New  York,  was  a  trans- 
port in  government  service  during  the  Crimean 
War,  afterwards  ran  to  Australia  as  a  passenger 
steamer,  and  in  1881  was  sold  to  be  converted  into 
a  sailing  ship. 

Another  of  the  early  steamers  was  the  President, 
launched  in  1839,  sailed  on  her  first  trip  to  New 
York  in  August,  1840.  In  April,  1841,  she  sailed 
from  New  York  and  was  never  heard  from  after- 
wards, nor  was  any  trace  of  her  wreck  ever  discov- 
ered. She  was  the  first  transatlantic  steamer  to 
disappear  at  sea  ;  those  that  have  followed  her 


STEAMERS  NEVER  HEARD  FROM.  361 


have  been  the  City  of  Glasgow,  City  of  Boston, 
Pacific,  Tempest,  United  Kingdom,  Mina  Thomas, 
Ismaiha,  Rechid,  Commander,  Mary  Church,  Shan- 
non, Anna,  Trojan,  Colombo,  Mexican,  Durley, 
Stamfordham,  Copia,  Herman  Ludwig,  Homer, 
and  Zanzibar. 

Several  of  the  above-named  steamers  were  small 
and  did  not  carry  passengers  ;  of  some  it  is  report- 
ed that  they  were  too  deeply  laden  for  safety,  and 
their  loss  is  due  to  the  greed  of  owners  rather  than 
to  unavoidable  accidents.  The  passenger  steamers 
never  heard  from  are  supposed  to  have  been  de- 
stroyed by  icebergs,  as  in  nearly  every  instance 
other  steamers  reported  great  quantities  of  ice  di- 
rectly in  the  track  of  the  ill-fated  vessels.  The 
President  was  seen  under  sail  and  not  using  her  en- 
gines on  the  23d  and  24th  of  April,  1841.  A  Por- 
tuguese brig  passed  within  three  miles  of  her,  but 
she  made  no  signals  of  distress  and  appeared  to  be 
sailing  about  four  miles  an  hour.  This  was  the  last 
ever  seen  of  her. 

Others  of  the  early  steamers  in  transatlantic  ser- 
vice were  the  British  Queen  and  Columbia.  The 
latter  should  not  be  confounded  with  the  Columbia 
of  the  Cunard  line,  which  was  wrecked  near  Hali- 
fax, without  loss  of  life,  in  July,  1843.  The  first 
American  steamer  running  regularly  to  England 
as  a  passenger  packet  was  the  Massachusetts,  built 
by  Captain  R.  B.  Forbes,  of  Boston.    She  sailed 


362 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


from  that  city  in  September,  1845,  crossed  the 
Atlantic  in  seventeen  and  a  half  days,  using  steam 
eleven  days.  She  was  an  auxiliary-screw  steamer, 
and  her  propeller  was  arranged  so  that  it  could 
be  hoisted  out  of  the  water  whenever  it  was  desired 
to  run  under  sails  alone. 

Previous  to  the  departure  of  the  Massachusetts, 
the  American  propeller  Marmora  had  visited  Eng- 
land on  her  way  from  Boston  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  the  paddle  steamer  Bangor  (also  American) 
had  crossed  direct  to  Gibraltar.  The  Massachu- 
setts had  a  propeller  nine  feet  in  diameter,  of  com- 
position metal,  and  her  measurement  was  about 
seven  hundred  tons.  She  made  two  voyages  to 
Liverpool  and  back,  and  was  then  chartered  and 
afterwards  sold  to  the  government  for  use  in  the 
Mexican  War.  At  the  capture  of  Vera  Cruz  she 
was  the  flag-ship  of  General  Scott.  After  the  con- 
clusion of  peace  with  Mexico  she  was  transferred  to 
the  Navy  Department,  and  carried  the  flag  of  the 
United  States  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  She  was  a  storeship  during  the 
Civil  War,  and  afterwards  a  sailing  ship  under  the 
name  of  Alaska. 

In  1 841,  Thomas  Butler  King,  of  Georgia,  intro- 
duced a  bill  into  Congress  directing  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  to  advertise  for  proposals  for  Ameri- 
can steamships  to  carry  the  mails  to  European 
ports.     The  bill  failed  of  passage,  but  was  brought 


AMERICAN  STEAMSHIP  IINES, 


Up  the  next  session,  and  again  and  again  by  Mr. 
King,  until  1 845,  when  he  succeeded  in  securing  the 
passage  of  a  bill  authorizing  the  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral to  advertise  for  proposals  for  the  transport  of 
the  mails  to  foreign  countries.  This  bill  led  to  the 
formation  of  the  Ocean  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany of  New  York,  which  began  active  operations 
in  1847  with  the  steamships  Washington  and  Her- 
mann, built  expressly  for  the  purpose. 

These  steamers  measured  about  1,700  tons  each, 
were  224  feet  long,  39  feet  broad,  and  29  feet 
deep.  They  ran  between  New  York  and  Bremen, 
touching  at  Southampton,  twice  a  month  each 
way,  and  were  to  receive  $200,000  yearly  compen- 
sation for  carrying  the  mails.  Their  average  pas- 
sages from  New  York  to  Cowes  were  14  days,  7 
hours,  17  minutes,  and  from  Cowes  to  New  York, 
13  days,  14  hours,  53  minutes.  The  line  was  dis- 
continued at  the  expiration  of  the  contract,  and  the 
steamers  were  sent  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  where  the 
Washington  was  wrecked  and  the  Hermann  broken 
up.  This  was  the  first  line  of  steamers  carrying  the 
mails  to  Europe  under  the  American  flag. 

In  1848  a  company  was  formed  for  a  fortnightly 
service  between  New  York  and  Havre,  with  a  com- 
pensation of  $  I  50,000  per  annum,  to  be  performed 
by  the  F'ranklin  and  the  Humboldt,  the  first  of 
2,400  tons  and  the  second  of  2,85o  tons.  The 
steamers  called  at  Southampton  both  going  and  re- 


364 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


turning,  and  in  conjunction  with  the  Bremen  line 
formed  a  weekly  communication  each  way  between 
New  York  and  Southampton.  The  Franklin  made 
her  first  voyage  in  1850,  and  was  wrecked  on  Long 
Island  in  1854.  The  Humboldt  began  running  in 
1 85 1,  and  was  lost  near  the  entrance  of  Halifax 
harbor  in  1853.  The  service  was  continued  by 
chartered  steamers  until  1855-56,  when  the  Fulton 
and  the  Arago  were  completed  and  placed  on  the 
route.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  line  was 
withdrawn,  and  the  steamers  were  used  as  trans- 
ports. It  had  been  hoped  that  the  mail-service 
would  be  resumed  after  the  close  of  the  war,  but 
such  was  not  the  case.  The  Arago  was  sold  to  one 
of  the  South  American  governments,  and  the  Ful- 
ton was  used  as  a  hospital  at  the  New  York  quar- 
antine station. 

All  the  steamers  of  the  Bremen  and  Havre  lines 
were  paddle  vessels.  The  Fulton  and  Arago  were 
practically  sister  ships,  differing  only  in  minor  de- 
tails. The  following  were  the  dimensions  of  the 
Fulton  : 

Length  on  deck,  290  feet ;  beam,  42  feet  4 
inches;  breadth  over  paddle-boxes,  65  feet  6 
inches;  depth  of  hold,  31  feet  6  inches,  measure- 
ment, 3,000  tons  ;  diameter  of  cylinder,  65  inches  ; 
length  of  stroke,  10  feet;  diameter  of  wheels,  31 
feet;  width  of  paddles,  18  inches;  length  of  pad- 
dles, 9  feet ;  number  of  paddles  on  each  wheel, 


AMERICAN  STEAMSHIP  IJNES. 


28.  The  Fulton  had  three  decks  ;  could  accom- 
modate 300  first-  and  second-class  passengers,  and 
carry  800  tons  coal  and  700  tons  freight.  She 
had  two  inclined  oscillating  engines,  and  her  draft, 
when  loaded,  was  i  feet. 

In  his  work  on  Ocean  Steam  Navigation,"  Mr. 
Rainey  says  :  When  one  of  our  first  American 
mail  steamers  sailed  for  Europe,  no  practical 
marine  engineers  could  be  found  to  work  her 
engines.  She  took  a  first-class  engineer  and  corps 
of  assistants  from  one  of  the  North  River  packets  ; 
but  as  soon  as  the  ship  got  to  sea  and  heavy  break- 
ers came  on,  all  her  engineers  and  firemen  were 
taken  deadly  sea-sick,  and  for  three  days  it  was  con- 
stantly expected  the  ship  would  be  lost." 


Four-Bladed  Screw. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


History  of  the  Collins  line — Loss  of  the  Pacific  and  Arctic — Fate  of  the 
other  Collins  steamers — Other  American  steam  lines — Cause  of  their 
present  inactivity — The  United  States  and  Brazil  line — English  and 
French  aid  to  steamers — American  coasting  lines. 

ALMOST  simultaneously  with  the  Bremen  and 
Havre  lines  of  American  steamships  came 
the  Collins  line,  which  was  at  one  time  the  object 
of  a, great  deal  of  patriotic  interest.  Its  inception 
was  not  unlike  that  of  the  Cunard  line,  but,  unhap- 
pily for  Americans,  the  parallel  cannot  be  followed 
beyond  a  few  years. 

Edward  K.  Collins  was  born  at  Truro,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1802,  and  came  to  New  York  when 
little  more  than  a  youth.  He  organized  a  line  of 
sailing  packets  between  New  York  and  Southern 
ports,  including  Vera  Cruz  and  Havana,  and  the 
success  of  this  enterprise  led  to  the  formation  of  a 
similar  line  to  Liverpool.  It  was  known  as  the 
Dramatic  Line,"  and  the  ships  composing  it  were 
the  Shakspeare,  Garrick,  Siddons,  Roscius,  and 
other  famous  names  on  the  dramatic  stage.  The 
ships  were  an  improvement  upon  any  of  their  pre- 
decessors ;  they  were  known  for  their  rapid  voy- 
ages, and  their  accommodations  for  passengers  were 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLLINS  LINE. 


of  a  style  of  luxury  hitherto  unknown.  They  made 
a  great  deal  of  money  for  their  owners,  and,  after 
the  Cunard  line  had  been  successfully  established, 
Mr.  Collins  determined  to  use  some  of  the  money 
which  his  sailing  packets  had  earned  for  him  in  cre- 
ating a  line  of  American  steamers. 

He  formed  a  company  for  that  purpose,  and,  in 
1847,  he  and  his  associates  obtained  from  the 
United  States  Government  a  contract  for  carrying 
the  mails  between  New  York  and  Liverpool.  They 
were  to  build  five  first-class  steamships,  and  make 
twenty  voyages  a  year,  and  for  each  voyage  they 
were  to  receive  $19,250.  Afterwards  the  number 
of  voyages  was  increased  to  twenty-six  a  year,  mak- 
ing a  fortnightly  departure  from  each  side,  and  the 
compensation  was  raised  to  $33,000  a  voyage,  or 
$878,000  yearly.  Further  time  was  given  to  the 
company  to  get  in  readiness  for  its  work,  and  it 
was  not  to  be  required  to  complete  its  fifth  ship.  It 
was  also  favored  with  an  advance  of  $25,000  upon 
each  ship  from  the  date  it  was  launched  until  the 
whole  sum  should  amount  to  $385,000.  In  return 
for  this  assistance  the  Collins  line  was  to  make 
quicker  passages  than  had  been  hitherto  made  by 
any  steamships  on  the  Atlantic,  and  deliver  the 
mails  with  greater  promptness  than  they  had  been 
delivered  by  the  Cunarders. 

The  first  steamer  of  the  Collins  line  was  the  At- 
lantic, which  left  New  York  April  27,  1849,  and  ar- 


368 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


rived  at  Liverpool  May  lo,  making  the  passage  in 
thirteen  days.  Two  days  were  lost  during  the  voy- 
age by  accidents  to  the  machinery,  and  it  was  found 
impossible  to  run  the  engines  at  full  speed  on  ac- 
count of  the  clanger  of  tearing  the  floats  from  the 
paddle-wheels.  The  Atlantic  was  276  feet  long,  45 
feet  beam,  76  feet  broad  over  the  paddle-boxes,  31 
feet  7  inches  deep,  and  her  measurement  was  2,860 
tons.     Her  wheels  were  36  feet  in  diameter,  and  it 


The  Steamship  Atlantic. 


was  claimed  that  she  was  the  largest  steamship  then 
afloat.  The  Pacific  was  built  on  precisely  the  same 
lines  as  the  Atlantic  ;  the  latter  was  broken  up  at 
New  York  in  1879,  and  the  former  disappeared  at 
sea  in  1856. 

The  Pacific  was  on  a  westward  voyage  at  the 
time  of  her  loss,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  de- 


LOSS  OF  THE  PACIFIC  AND  ARTIC,  369 


stroyed  by  running  into  an  iceberg.  Two  hundred 
and  forty  persons  were  on  board  of  her  at  the  time, 
including  the  wife  of  Mr.  ColHns,  the  founder  of 
the  Hne. 

The  Arctic  was  the  fastest  steamer  of  the  ColHns 
line  and  was  modelled  by  George  Steers,  the  de- 
signer of  the  yacht  America.  She  was  282  feet 
long,  45  feet  wide,  and  24  feet  deep  below  the 
main  deck.  Her  capacity  was  2,856  tons ;  her 
cylinders  were  95  inches  in  diameter,  and  the  length 
of  stroke  was  10  feet.  On  her  eighth  passage  from 
New  York  she  made  the  then  wonderful  time  to 
Liverpool  of  9  days,  17  hours,  and  12  minutes. 

The  average  time  of  forty-two  westward  trips  of 
the  Collins  line  in  its  early  days  was  11  days,  10 
hours,  and  26  minutes ;  at  the  same  period  the 
average  time  of  the  Cunarders  was  12  days,  19 
hours,  and  26  minutes.  During  the  World's  Fair 
in  London,  in  1851,  the  superior  speed  of  the 
American  steamers  led  to  the  following  in  Punch  : 

A  steamer  of  the  Collins  Line, 

A  Yankee-doodle  notion, 
Has  also  quickest  cut  the  brine 

Across  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
And  British  agents,  noways  slow 

Her  merits  to  discover, 
Have  been  and  bought  her — just  \o  tow 

The  Cunard  packets  over." 

On  the  27th  of  September,  1854,  in  a  dense  fog 


370 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


about  fifty  miles  south  of  Cape  Race  the  ArctL 
was  run  into  by  the  French  steamship  Vesta,  and 
sunk.  Of  her  passengers  and  crew  five  hundred 
and  sixty-two  were  lost.  The  Baltic  made  several 
quick  passages  and  was  deservedly  famous  in  her 
time.  She  was  in  government  service  during  the 
Civil  War,  and  afterwards  ran  between  New  York 
and  Aspinwall  for  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com- 
pany. Then  she  was  altered  to  a  sailing  ship  and 
made  several  voyages  between  San  Francisco  and 
Liverpool  as  a  wheat  carrier,  for  which  she  was 
admirably  adapted.  Afterwards  she  was  bought  by 
a  German  company  and  on  a  voyage  from  Bremen 
to  Boston  was  so  badly  strained  as  to  be  considered 
unseaworthy.  Accordingly  she  was  broken  up  in 
1880,  and  so  ended  the  last  of  the  four  steamships 
that  composed  the  once  famous  Collins  line. 

A  fifth  ship,  the  Adriatic,  was  built  by  the  com- 
pany and  launched  April  8,  1856,  but  before  she  was 
ready  for  service  the  Collins  Steamship  Company 
had  failed,  and  the  Adriatic  never  made  a  trip  on 
the  line.  She  was  a  screw  steamship,  345  feet  long, 
50  feet  wide,  and  33^^  feet  deep.  Her  registered 
capacity  was  4,145  tons.  She  was  purchased  in 
1 86 1  by  the  Galway  Steamship  Company,  which 
had  been  formed  with  a  view  to  running  fast  steam- 
ers between  Galway,  Ireland,  and  St.  Johns,  New- 
foundland, making  the  transit  of  the  Atlantic  in 
six  days.     The  Adriatic  fully  met  the  requirements 


FATE  OF  THE  COLLINS  STEAMERS, 


and  on  a  return  trip  to  Galway  she  went  from  port 
to  port  in  5  days,  19  hours,  and  46  minutes.  The 
Galway  line  came  to  grief  after  a  very  brief  exist- 
ence ;  the  Adriatic  passed  through  various  vicissi- 
tudes, and  finally  was  relegated  to  use  as  a  coal 
hulk,  the  fate  of  many  a  noble  steamer  that  has 
plowed  the  ocean  in  pride. 

Impelled  by  Congress  and  the  American  public 
generally,  the  Collins  line  sought  to  surpass  all 
rivals  in  the  matter  of  speed.  The  object  was  ac- 
complished by  pushing  the  ships  to  their  best,  but 
the  cost  of  doing  so  was  very  great.  Each  of  the 
four  ships  consumed  from  ninety  to  one  hundred 
tons  of  coal  daily,  and  in  a  statement  made  to 
Congress  it  was  shown  that  it  cost  nearly  half  a 
million  dollars  annually  to  make  the  saving  of  a 
single  day  in  the  voyages  to  Liverpool  from  New 
York. 

The  original  cost  of  the  four  steamers  was 
$2,994,000;  the  average  cost  of  each  of  the  round 
trips  in  the  early  days  was  $65,215,  and  the  aver- 
age receipts  $48,287.  The  withdrawal  of  the  sub- 
sidy compelled  the  withdrawal  of  the  line,  and  the 
building  of  the  Adriatic  completed  the  ruin  of  Mr. 
Collins.  He  died  in  New  York  in  June,  1878; 
his  funeral  was  attended  by  many  men  prominent 
in  maritime  matters,  including  representatives  of 
nearly  all  the  steamship  lines  connecting  New  York 
with  foreign  ports. 


372 


ROBERT  FULTON: 


The  history  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com- 
pany has  been  given  elsewhere.  It  is  now  the 
only  steamship  line  of  importance  carrying  the 
American  flag  to  foreign  ports.  In  the  last 
twenty  years  there  have  been  several  attempts  to 
establish  lines  of  American  steamships  to  Europe, 
and  also  to  South  America,  Australia,  and  else- 
where, but  all  have  failed  to  be  remunerative.  With 
the  exception  of  the  American  line  from  Philadel- 
phia to  Liverpool,  all  the  transatlantic  lines  be- 
long to  European  nations,  and  of  the  one  Ameri- 
can line  referred  to,  some  of  the  ships  are  under 
the  English  flag.    The  cause  is  not  far  to  seek. 

The  rates  of  taxation  upon  steamship  property 
in  the  United  States  are  much  heavier  than  in 
other  countries  ;  materials  and  labor  are  dearer, 
and  the  wages  of  officers  and  crews  are  much 
higher.  Congress,  with  a  few  spasmodic  excep- 
tions, has  refused  to  encourage  ocean  navigation 
by  mail  contracts  or  other  subsidies  to  American 
steamers.  This  is  in  direct  contrast  to  the  conduct 
of  England  towards  her  merchant  marine,  which  is 
by  far  the  largest  in  the  world,  and  owes  much  of 
its  prosperity  to  the  liberality  of  the  government. 
British  steamships  are  taxed  upon  their  earnings, 
and  not  upon  their  valuation.  In  a  poor  season, 
or  while  lying  idle,  there  is  little  or  no  taxation, 
but  the  American  ship-owner  must  pay  the  same 
rate  upon  his   property   at  all   times.  England 


CAUSE  OF  PRESENT  INACTIVITY.  373 


has  steadily  encouraged  steam  navigation  to  foreign 
countries,  or  to  her  distant  colonies,  by  granting 
subsidies  in  the  form  of  mail  contracts,  and  the  sub- 
sidies have  been  almost  uniformly  maintained  until 
such  time  as  the  business  has  developed  to  a  point 
where  the  steamers  can  run  without  government  aid. 

England  was  a  country  of  protection  until  she 
had  built  up  her  industries  to  where  they  could 
compete  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  which  hap- 
pened about  1840-1845.  Then  she  threw  off  her 
protective  duties  and  became  a  land  of  free  trade, 
and  she  followed  her  action  by  demanding  that  all 
other  nations  should  open  their  markets  to  her 
products.  But  from  1840  to  the  present  time  she 
has  persistently  protected  her  foreign  steam  marine 
by  heavy  subsidies  for  carrying  the  mails,  wherever 
subsidies  were  needed.  When  the  lines  have  be- 
come self-sustaining,  the  subsidies  have  been  with- 
drawn, though  there  are  many  exceptions  to  this 
rule.  England's  policy  in  regard  to  steam  lines 
has  been  almost  the  exact  repetition  of  her  policy 
toward  British  manufacturing  interests  previous  to 
1 840-1 845,  and  by  careful  adherence  to  it  she  has 
made  her  steam  marine  what  it  now  is.  She 
has  destroyed  fair  competition,  and  obtained  a 
practical  monopoly  of  the  construction  of  iron  steam 
ships,  although  her  conduct  has  been  a  palpable 
contradiction  of  her  professions  in  favor  of  free 
trade  everywhere. 


374 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


France  encourages  ocean  navigation  not  only 
by  heavy  contracts  for  carrying  the  mails,  but  by 
bounties  upon  the  construction  and  equipment  of 
steamers  and  sailing  ships.  In  the  case  of  a 
steamer  built  in  France,  the  bounty  amounts  to 
I  ']\  per  cent,  of  her  total  cost.  On  a  steamer  cost- 
ing $250,000  the  bounty  amounts  to  about  $44,000. 
In  case  of  a  change  of  boilers,  provided  the  new  ones 
are  of  French  make,  the  owner  of  the  ship  re- 
ceives a  bounty  of  $16.00  per  ton  of  new  engines, 
or  boilers,  weighed  without  the  tubes.  In  a  change 
of  boilers  weighing  100  tons  without  the  tubing, 
the  owner  would  receive  $1,600. 

On  a  steel  or  iron  sailing  ship  of  1,500  tons  gross 
measurement  the  bounty  amounts  to  $18,000;  being 
at  the  rate  of  $12.00  a  ton.  On  a  wooden  sailing 
ship  of  1,000  tons  gross,  the  bounty  is  $4,000,  or  $4 
a  ton.  On  a  composite  ship,  of  wood  and  iron,  the 
bounty  is  $8.00  a  ton  gross  measurement. 

The  bounty  is  increased  15  per  cent,  on  steamers 
built  on  plans  approved  beforehand  by  the  Marine 
and  Navy  Department.  In  case  of  war,  merchant 
ships  and  steamers  may  be  impressed  into  the  govern- 
ment service,  for  which  they  are  entitled  to  a  fair 
compensation.  French  steamships  receive  a  bounty 
for  the  number  of  miles  run  at  sea,  and  for  this 
compensation  they  shall  carry  the  government 
mails  free  of  charge.  During  the  first  year  of  the 
operation  of  the  bounty  system  in   France,  161 


THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  BRAZIL  LINE.  375 


Steamers,  of  122,276  tons,  were  added  to  the  French 
merchant  marine. 

Germany,  Holland,  Russia,  and  other  countries 
encourage  steam  navigation  by  liberal  mail  contracts 
to  ships  bearing  their  respective  flags,  but  not  so 
the  United  States.  The  following  from  Admiral 
Preble's  account  of  the  United  States  and  Brazil 
Mail  Steamship  Line  is  a  good  illustration  of  Ameri- 
can encouragement  to  ocean  steam  navigation  : 

The  steamships  of  the  United  States  and  Brazil  Mail 
Steamship  Line  (now  defunct)  were  built  by  John  Roach 
&  Son,  at  Chester,  Pa.,  on  the  Delaware,  and  were  fine 
specimens  of  naval  architecture.  They  were  370  feet  long 
over  all,  39  feet  beam,  with  a  depth  of  hold  from  base  line 
to  the  top  of  spar-deck  of  31  feet  6  inches,  and  had  a  cus- 
tom-house register  of  3,500  tons.  Their  mean  low  draft 
was  21  feet.  They  had  three  decks,  beside  the  hurricane 
deck,  from  the  stern  extending  to  the  after  side  of  the 
main  hatch.  The  deck-frames  were  of  iron,  and  the  deck- 
houses all  iron-braced  and  stiffened  in  the  most  thorough 
manner.  They  had  six  bulkheads,  dividing  them  into 
seven  water-tight  compartments. 

Built  under  the  supervision  of  the  Bureau  Veritas  and 
the  American  Shipmasters  Association  of  New  York,  they 
were  rendered  seaworthy  by  the  use  of  the  best  material 
in  their  construction  and  equipment.  The  machinery 
proper  consisted  of  two  compound  surface-condensing  en- 
gines, the  cylinders  of  which  were  42  inches  for  the  high 
pressure,  and  74  inches  for  the  low  pressure,  each  60  inches 
stroke,  2,500-horse  power,  and  with  separate  engines  for 
working  the  air  and  circulating  pumps.  The  six  boilers 
were  of  the  cylindrical  return  tubular  type,  their  working 


376 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


pressure  90  pounds  to  the  square  inch.  The  propeller 
was  a  four-bladed  brass  one,  16  feet  in  diameter,  of  the 
Hirsch  patent.  The  maximum  passenger  capacity  was 
100  first-class  passengers,  and  400  in  the  steerage. 

The  whole  project  was  the  enterprise  of  one  plucky 
man,  John  Roach,  a  deserving  citizen,  yet  probably  one 
of  the  best-abused  men  in  the  country.  The  founder  of 
the  line  risked  a  million  of  his  own  private  capital  in 
starting  a  line  of  steamers  to  an  empire  6,000  miles  away, 
from  which  the  United  States  buys  $60,000,000  worth  of 
goods  every  year,  and  to  which  it  would  like  to  sell  a 
similar  sum  annually,  and  could,  in  time,  if  facilities  for 
the  trade  are  created  and  maintained.  Previous  to  the 
starting  of  the  line  our  merchants  were  handicapped.  It 
was  as  though  Boston  was  trying  to  do  business  with  San 
Francisco  by  means  of  steamers  sailing  to  Panama,  while 
New  York  was  trading  over  a  direct  railroad  route  across 
the  continent.  We  had  to  send  a  long  way  to  reach 
Brazil.  The  English  traded  direct.  Our  mails  and  valua- 
ble goods  to  Brazil  had  to  go  by  way  of  England,  taking 
ten  or  thirteen  days  to  cross  the  Atlantic,  having  often  to 
wait  ten  days  in  England  for  a  steamer,  and  then  consum- 
ing from  twenty  to  twenty-five  days  in  going  from  the 
British  Isles  to  Brazil. 

When  this  new  line  from  this  country  direct  was 
started,  facilities  were  created  which  were  imperatively 
needed.  The  convenience  of  the  line  was  so  great  that 
it  has  been  frankly  and  cordially  conceded.  The  steamers 
were  well  manged,  and  in  three  years  never  missed  a  trip 
nor  failed  to  sail  on  time.  By  means  of  the  line  mails 
were  sent  in  twenty-two  days  direct ;  and  the  certainty 
and  regularity  of  the  trips  were  of  advantage  almost  to 
the  whole  American  public.  A  wide  variety  of  miscel- 
laneous products  were  introduced,  little  by  little,  and 


THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  BRAZIL  LINE.  377 


the  start  of  a  large  trade  effected.  In  quantities  of 
goods  sold  the  export  trade  to  Brazil  increased  constantly 
while  the  steamers  ran.  The  line  brought  travellers  and 
merchants  to  the  country  in  large  numbers,  the  exact 
number  in  the  three  years  being  about  two  thousand. 
Profitable  orders  and  contracts  were  brought  to  this  coun- 
try by  these  travellers,  which  otherwise  would  not  have 
been  secured.  There  was  a  large  reduction  in  freights, 
also,  through  the  operation  of  this  American  line.  Instead 
of  its  costing  from  70  to  85  cents  a  bag  to  get  coffee  to 
New  York  from  Brazil,  the  freight  was  reduced  to  50,  and 
even  to  30  cents  a  bag.  This  commodity  was  brought 
6,000  miles  for  $5  and  $6  a  ton,  that  is,  at  the  rate  of  $1 
a  ton  for  a  thousand  miles  of  voyage,  which  is  about  the 
cheapest  ocean  transportation  ever  known. 

The  saving  to  the  United  States  upon  the  immense  im- 
portations of  coffee  was  very  large.  The  freight  on  meas- 
urement goods  was  also  lowered  from  35  cents  a  cubic 
foot  to  about  20  cents.  These  reductions  and  the  more 
important  fact  of  regular  and  quick  communication  were 
of  genuine  service  to  the  public  ;  and  it  was  with  sincere 
regret  that  business  men  learned  of  the  discontinuance 
of  the  American  line.  During  the  three  years  that  Mr. 
Roach  maintained  the  line,  $1,400,000  was  paid  out  for 
expenses,  and  $92,000  for  repairs  in  the  United  States,  and 
$300,000  for  expenses  abroad.  And  it  was  estimated  that 
the  business  men  of  this  country  have  saved  $1,700,000  by 
reduction  of  South  American  freights  during  that  period. 

Mr.  Roach  had  very  far-reaching  plans.  Could  this 
line  have  received  the  support  he  sought  to  obtain  for  it, 
he  would  have  built  more  steamers  and  started  several 
other  lines.  The  Brazilian  fleet  would  have  been  enlarged, 
and  direct  trade  would  have  been  opened  to  other  coasts. 
The  Buenos  Ayres  project  was  only  one  of  many  in  view. 


378 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


It  seems  a  pity  that  the  question  of  mail  compensa- 
tion to  the  Brazihan  line  could  never  have  been  discussed 
on  its  merits.  Mr.  Roach's  appeal  to  Congress  was  not 
by  any  means  entirely  defenceless.  He  carried  the  United 
States  mails  140,000  miles  in  1879  $1^875,  while  three 
coasting  lines  carried  them  unitedly  123,400  miles  and  got 
$102,800  for  the  service.  Mr.  Roach  was  beaten,  not  by 
the  impolicy  of  the  subsidy  system,  but  by  an  organized 
effort,  both  in  the  United  States  and  in  Brazil,  to  break 
him  down.  People  went  from  city  to  city  with  subscrip- 
tion papers  to  raise  money  to  use  against  him  at  Washing- 
ton, and  the  speeches  made  at  Washington  in  opposition 
to  his  line  were  translated  into  Portuguese  and  sent  to 
Brazil  by  thousands  to  create  a  coldness  in  ofificial  circles 
there  against  the  American  steamers." 

In  a  speech  before  the  House  of  Representatives 
April  25,  1882,  while  advocating  measures  for  the 
relief  of  American  shipping,  Hon.  Nelson  Dingley 
used  the  following  language  : 

The  efforts  of  England  to  control  the  ocean  carrying 
trade  ought  to  arouse  the  American  Congress  and  people 
to  the  importance  of  our  shipping  interests.  This  is  a 
question  which  affects  the  interior  as  much  as  the  sea- 
board, the  West  as  much  as  the  East,  the  South  as  much 
as  the  North.    It  is  not  a  local,  but  a  national  question. 

It  involves  the  inquiry  as  to  whether  we  will  save  to 
our  own  people  the  ship-building  industry,  which  employs 
tens  of  thousands  of  workmen,  and  distributes  millions  of 
dollars  ;  whether  we  shall  retain  a  due  share  of  the  $100,- 
000,000,  which  we  annually  pay  for  ocean  transportation, 
with  all  the  avenues  of  employment  which  it  would  open  ; 
whether  we  shall  open  up  wider  markets  for  American 
products  in  China,  Japan,  South  America,  and  the  Orient. 


ENGLISH  AID  TO  STEAMERS. 


379 


It  covers  more  than  the  material  interests  of  tlie 
nation,  great  as  these  are.  It  involves  questions  affecting 
our  commercial  independence  ;  our  standing  and  influence 
as  a  nation  ;  and  even  our  national  security.  No  nation 
ever  maintained  its  national  importance  after  it  ceased  to 
be  a  great  commercial  nation. 

To-day  our  commerce  is  largely  dependent  on  foreign 
ships ;  so  dependent  that  a  war  in  Europe  would  be  more 
disastrous  to  us  than  to  the  belligerents  themselves. 

The  eyes  of  the  country  are  turned  to  the  defenceless 
condition  of  our  coasts  in  consequence  of  the  weakness  of 
our  navy ;  for  it  is  an  accepted  military  axiom  that  what- 
ever nations  command  the  ocean  will  command  the  coasts 
of  countries  adjacent.  But  a  powerful  navy  is  the  offspring 
of  a  great  merchant  marine.  Look  over  the  nations  of 
the  w^orld,  and  it  will  be  found  that  navies  rise  and  fall 
with  their  merchant  marine.  Great  navies,  it  has  been 
well  said,  are  never  built  in  navy-yards.  The  United 
States  have  eight  navy-yards,  and  almost  no  navy.  Eng- 
land has  only  three  navy-yards,  and  the  strongest  navy  in 
the  world.  Only  nineteen  per  cent,  of  her  vessels  and 
marine  engines  were  built  in  navy-yards,  and  eighty-one 
per  cent,  in  private  ship-yards.  The  fleet  of  English 
merchant  iron  steamships,  subject  to  government  orders 
in  case  of  war,  in  return  for  the  aid  they  receive,  is  in  it- 
self an  effective  naval  force.  The  development  of  our 
merchant  marine  is  the  cheapest,  most  effective,  and  most 
beneficent  policy  of  national  defence. 

Important  as  are  many  other  questions  before  this  Con- 
gress, I  hold  that  not  one  of  them  is  of  greater  importance 
and  of  more  far-reaching  consequence  than  this.  We  arc  al- 
ready a  republic  of  more  than  50,000,000,  and  increasing  in 
population  and  wealth  at  a  rate  never  before  known  in  the 
history  of  any  other  nation.    In  1890,  our  population  will 


38o 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


reach  65,000,000,  and  in  19 10  it  will  reach  100,000,000, 
provided  we  are  true  to  ourselves  and  our  destiny.  But, 
unless  all  history  is  misleading,  we  cannot  hope  to  retain 
our  present  advantages,  or  to  extend  our  prestige  as  a 
nation,  unless,  by  an  efficient  system  of  protection  and 
encouragement,  we  hold  and  strengthen  our  position  on 
the  sea,  as  we  have  on  the  land.  As  has  been  well  said, 
the  throne  of  empire  rests  no  less  on  the  rocking  waves 
than  on  the  solid  land." 

The  navigation  laws  of  the  United  States  pre- 
vent the  coasting  trade  from  falling  into  the  con- 
trol of  other  nations ;  they  are  copied  from  the 
English  laws,  which  were  made  in  the  time  of 
Cromwell,  and  were  maintained  without  important 
variations  until  very  recently.  The  English  laws 
provide  that  no  ship  should  be  deemed  a  British 
one  that  was  not  built  in  the  dominions  of  Great 
Britain,  wholly  owned  by  British  subjects,  and  navi- 
gated by  a  British  commander,  with  a  crew  three 
fourths  British.  None  but  British  ships  should 
carry  merchandise  from  one  British  port  to  another, 
and  no  goods  produced  or  manufactured  in  Asia, 
Africa,  or  America  should  be  imported  in  other 
than  British  ships  or  in  the  ships  of  the  countries 
that  produced  them. 

Many  political  economists  believe  that  the  rigor- 
ous enforcement  of  these  laws  during  two  centuries 
has  done  more  than  any  other  cause  in  giving  Eng- 
land her  enormous  commerce.  In  1849  the  prin- 
ciples of  free  trade  were  allowed  to  break  down 


AMERICAN  COASTING  LINES. 


this  monopoly  in  some  of  its  features.  By  an  act 
of  Parliament  in  that  year  and  by  later  amend- 
ments, ships  built  elsewhere  than  in  Great  Britain 
may  receive  British  registers,  provided  they  are 
owned  by  British  subjects.  Any  ship  may  bring 
merchandise  to  British  ports,  but  it  is  in  the  power 
of  the  government  to  put  such  restrictions  or  pro- 
hibitions upon  the  ships  of  any  country  as  are  made 
upon  British  ships  in  the  ports  of  that  country. 

The  coasting  trade  of  the  United  States  is  re- 
tained for  vessels  flying  the  United  States  flag  ; 
the  rule  holds  good  for  the  great  lakes  of  our  north- 
ern boundary,  as  well  as  for  maritime  navigation 
on  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts.  Under  these 
navigation  laws,  the  various  lines  running  between 
northern  and  southern  ports  are  free  from  foreign 
competition.  The  only  steamship  lines  which 
Americans  can  ''proudly  call  their  own"  are  those 
that  connect  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia 
with  Norfolk,  Charleston,  Savannah,  New  Orleans, 
Galveston,  Havana,  Vera  Cruz,  and  other  of  the 
coast  and  gulf  ports.  The  steamer  business  on  the 
great  lakes  has  been  elsewhere  mentioned. 

Of  the  coasting  lines,  the  most  important  are  the 
Mallory  Line,  from  New  York  to  Florida  and  the 
gulf  coast  as  far  west  as  the  Mexican  frontier  ;  the 
Boston  and  Savannah  Steamship  Company,  whose 
service  is  indicated  by  its  name  ;  the  New  York, 
Havana^  and  Mexican  Mail  Steamship  Company, 


382 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


more  generally  known  as  the  ''Alexandre  Line/'  run- 
ning between  New  York,  Havana,  and  the  ports  of 
Mexico  ;  the  Red  ''  D ''  line  of  steamships  between 
New  York  and  Caribbean-Sea  ports  ;  the  Ocean 
Steamship  Company,  connecting  New  York  and 
Savannah  ;  Morgan's  and  Cromwell's  lines  to  Lou- 
isiana and  Texas  ;  the  Old  Dominion  Steamship 
Company,  and  the  New  York  &  Cuba  Mail  Steam- 
ship Company,  running  between  New  York  and 
Havana  weekly,  and  to  Santiago  de  Cuba  monthly. 
The  last  is  frequently  called    Ward's  Line." 

Most  of  the  steamers  of  these  coasting  lines  are 
of  iron,  and  admirably  fitted  for  the  special  trade  in 
which  they  are  employed.  They  measure  variously 
from  1,200  to  3,500  tons,  and  their  accommodations 
for  passengers  are  excellent.  Take  the  City  of 
Augusta,  of  the  Ocean  Steamship  Company,  as 
an  example  :  She  has  a  cargo  capacity  of  3,000 
tons,  is  323  feet  long  over  all,  40  feet  beam,  has 
five  water-tight  compartments  and  three  decks. 
She  has  compound  engines,  with  two  inverted 
cylinders,  which  are  respectively  42  and  82  inches 
in  diameter.  Her  screw  is  16  feet  in  diameter, 
with  26  feet  pitch,  and  with  six  tubular  boilers 
she  works  under  a  pressure  of  100  pounds  of 
steam.  Her  staterooms  are  unusually  commodi- 
ous, and  she  carries  100  first-class  passengers 
without  crowding. 

The  City  of  Alexandria  and  the  City  of  Wash- 


AMERICAN  COASTING  LINES. 


ington,  of  the  Alexandre  Line,  have  each  accom- 
modations for  one  hundred  and  fifty  first-class 
passengers.  Some  of  the  staterooms  on  these 
steamers  have  been  fitted  with  the  Huston  self- 
levelling  berth,  which  maintains  a  level  position 
throughout  all  the  motions  of  the  ship,  and  is  highly 
prized  by  those  to  whom  sea-sickness  is  a  terror. 
The  Newport,  of  the  New  York  and  Cuba  line, 
has  made  the  fastest  time  on  record  between  New 
York  and  Havana.  She  has  a  capacity  of  3,000 
tons,  and  is  an  iron  ship,  348  feet  long  and  38 
feet  beam.  She  has  compound  engines,  with 
cylinders  of  48  and  90  inches  diameter,  and  /[^  feet 
stroke.  The  engines  are  capable  of  being  devel- 
oped to  3,000-horse  power,  or  one-horse  power  for 
each  ton  of  measurement.  The  steam  pumps  are 
so  arranged  that  they  can  be  connected  with  any 
part  of  the  vessel,  and  are  capable  of  throwing 
1,750  barrels  of  water  a  minute. 

Recently  a  monthly  service  each  way  between 
New  York  and  Rio  Janeiro,  touching  at  Nev/- 
port  News,  St.  Thomas,  Barbadoes,  Para  and 
other  Brazilian  ports,  has  been  established  with  the 
iron  steamers  Merrimack  and  Finance.  The 
managers  have  revived  the  name  of  the  United 
States  and  Brazil  Mail  Steamship  Company,  and 
promise  that  their  service  will  be  a  permanent  one. 
This  is  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


How  the  Inman  Line  was  founded — First  steamers  for  carrying  emigrants 
— Steady  increase  in  the  size  of  ships — The  City  of  Rome — Hamburg 
and  Bremen  lines  and  their  origin — The  Anchor  Line  and  its  latest 
steamship — The  "  French  Mail  " — Notes  on  the  compound  marine  en- 
gine and  the  lengthening  of  ships. 

THE  second  transatlantic  steamship  line  yet  in 
existence  is  that  of  the  Liverpool,  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia  Steamship  Company,"  better 
known  as  the  Inman  Line."  It  was  organized 
by  William  Inman,  an  enterprising  merchant  of 
Liverpool,  and  was  the  first  transatlantic  line  of 
iron  steamships  propelled  by  the  screw.  The 
service  began  by  the  departure  of  the  steamship 
City  of  Glasgow  from  Liverpool  for  Philadelphia, 
December  lo,  1850,  carrying  a  general  cargo  and 
400  steerage  passengers.  To  Mr.  Inman  is  due 
the  credit  of  originating  the  plan  of  carrying  steer- 
age passengers  on  steamships.  Before  that  time 
emigrants  were  excluded  from  steam-vessels  on 
account  of  the  high  price  of  passage,  and  their 
only  means  of  transatlantic  transit  was  by  sailing 
ships. 

The  Inman  Line  began  without  subsidies  and 
with  only  one  steamship.  Prophecies  were  freely 
made  that  the  projector  of  the  enterprise  would  be 


HOW  THE  INMAN  LINE  WAS  FOUNDED,  385 


ruined,  and  it  is  said  that  he  had  much  difficulty  in 
securing  partners  in  the  scheme.  As  the  Cunard 
Line  was  running  to  New  York  and  Boston,  Mr. 
Inman  decided  to  make  Philadelphia  his  western 
terminus  and  for  six  years  he  continued  to  do  so. 
One  of  his  steamers,  the  Kangaroo,  was  frozen  up 
in  the  Delaware  for  five  weeks,  and  this  and  other 
reasons  turned  his  attention  towards  New  York. 
For  a  few  years  the  steamers  sailed  alternately 
from  New  York  and  Philadelphia  but  finally  the 
Quaker  City  was  abandoned  altogether  for  the 
more  accessible  port  of  New  York. 

The  predictions  of  failure  were  by  no  means 
realized.  The  business  of  the  single  steamer  City 
of  Glasgow,  which  made  monthly  trips  each  way, 
and  for  the  first  six  months  composed  the  entire 
line,"  was  so  profitable  that  the  City  of  Manches- 
ter was  purchased  in  June  185 1  and  doubled  the 
fleet  of  the  company.  This  steamer  yielded  a 
profit  of  forty  per  cent,  in  the  first  year  of  her  pos- 
session by  Inman  and  his  partners  ;  the  profits  to- 
gether with  additional  capital  were  invested  in 
other  steamships,  and  step  by  step  the  line  grew 
from  a  monthly  service  to  a  fortnightly,  tri-monthly, 
weekly,  and  semi-weekly  one.  The  owners  actually 
contemplated  a  daily  service  but  were  cautious 
enough  not  to  undertake  it  until  justified  by  the 
volume  of  business. 

Down  to  1875  the  Inman  Line  was  a  partnership 


386 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


affair ;  in  that  year  it  was  formed  into  a  joint  stock 
association  with  the  name  of  Inman  Steamship 
Company,  Limited,"  its  founder  retaining  a  large 
interest,  and  his  son,  Ernest  S.  I nman,  becoming  man- 
ager of  the  Hne.  Mr.  WilHam  Inman  died  in  i88r, 
and  long  before  his  death  he  was  in  possession  of  a 
large  fortune,  the  result  of  his  enterprise  and 
industry.  Many  thousands  of  emigrants  hold  him  in 
affectionate  remembrance  for  the  work  he  originated 
of  carrying  steerage  passengers  on  steamers  ;  other 
lines  have  taken  a  portion  of  this  business,  but  the 
credit  of  starting  it  belongs  to  the  man  just  named. 
In  an  article  upon  this  subject  the  London  Times 
said  : 

Many  were  those  who  shook  their  heads  when 
the  '  City  of  Glasgow  '  set  out  on  her  first  voyage, 
screw-propelled  in  mid-winter,  when  the  condition 
of  the  Atlantic  was  thought  to  be  perilous  in  the 
extreme  ;  but  the  founder  of  the  Inman  Line  had 
faith  in  his  own  prognostication,  and  from  being 
regarded  as  a  desperate  adventurer  he  has  become 
the  recognized  pioneer  of  a  liberal  enterprise,  from 
which  thousands  of  struggling  families,  driven  to 
seek  their  fortunes  over  the  seas,  have  benefited  in 
a  manner  that  will  compare  with  any  of  the  great 
improvements  of  modern  times." 

The  quickness  of  transit  was  by  no  means  the 
only  advantage  over  the  old  emigrant  service  of 
the  packet  ships.    The  food  was  better  and  more 


FIRST  STEAMERS  FOR  CARRYING  EMIGRANTS.  387 


liberal  in  quantity ;  rigid  sanitary  requirements 
were  made  ;  medical  and  official  supervision  was 
strict  and  constant  ;  the  moral  conduct  of  the 
steerage  passengers  was  carefully  guarded  ;  and 
the  tales  of  horror  "  that  came  from  the  sailing 
packets  in  former  times  became  things  only  of 
history.  But  while  the  Inman  Line  made  a  specialty 
of  the  steerage  business  it  did  not  neglect  the  first- 
class  nor  the  intermediate."  It  entered  into  a 
sharp  competition  with  other  lines  for  passengers  of 
the  higher  grades,  and  though  unpopular  at  first  on 
account  of  its  transport  of  emigrants  it  long  ago 
gained  a  foremost  place. 

The  early  ships  of  this  line  were  not  famous  for 
their  first-class  accommodations,  and  could  only  ob- 
tain cabin  passengers  by  taking  them  at  lower 
rates  than  the  Cunard  and  Collins  steamers  ;  it 
steadily  won  its  way  to  favor  by  the  character  of  its 
newer  ships,  the  vessels  of  each  decade  being 
larger,  better  fitted,  and  in  every  way  preferable  to 
those  of  the  preceding  one.  And  not  even  ten  years 
were  required  for  a  very  marked  improvement, 
as  it  frequently  happened  that  a  ship  which  was 
considered  the  perfection  of  a  floating  palace  "  on 
making  her  first  voyage,  was,  in  five  years,  an 

antiquated  tub,  quite  behind  the  age." 

The  most  serious  accidents  that  have  befallen 
the  Inman  Company  were  the  losses  of  the  City  of 
Glasgow  in  1854,  and  the  City  of  Boston  in  1870. 


388 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Both  ships  disappeared  at  sea,  and  no  trace  of  them 
was  ever  found. 

The  City  of  Glasgow  was  277  feet  long,  32  feet 
7  inches  broad,  and  24  feet  7  inches  deep.  She 
was  1,600  tons  burthen,  with  engines  of  380-horse 
power.  Compare  her  dimensions  with  those  of  the 
following,  which  may  be  taken  as  types  of  the  prog- 
ress of  the  Inman  Line  in  successive  periods  : 


NAME  OF  STEAMSHIP. 

YEAR. 

LENGTH. 

WIDTH. 

DEPTH. 

TONS. 

City  of  Manchester. 

I85I 

262 

36 

25 

1,906 

City  of  Baltimore. 

1854 

326 

39 

26 

2,472 

City  of  Bristol. 

i860 

349 

38 

27 

2,655 

City  of  New  York. 

1865 

375 

40 

33 

3.499 

City  of  Brussels. 

1869 

390 

41 

35 

3.775 

City  of  Montreal. 

1872 

419 

44 

34 

4,489 

City  of  Berlin. 

1874 

520 

45 

37 

5^941 

City  of  Rome. 

I88I 

586 

52 

37 

8,415 

The  last-named  steamer,  the  City  of  Rome,  was 
built  for  the  Inman  Company,  but  did  not  meet  the 
terms  of  the  contract  in  speed,  carrying  capactity, 
and  consumption  of  coal.  She  was  returned  to  the 
builders,  and,  after  undergoing  expensive  altera- 
tions, was  sold  to  the  Anchor  Line,  in  whose  service 
she  is  now  running.  The  company's  fleet  now  in 
service  comprise  the  latest  and  fastest  ships,  and  its 
departures  are  weekly  from  each  end  of  the  route. 
The  voyage  is  frequently  accomplished  inside  of 
eight  days,  and  the  intending  passenger  can  be  as- 


THE  CITY  OF  ROME, 


sured  at  the  company's  office  of  certainty,  security, 
and  celerity,"  in  the  ocean  transit.  Agents  of 
steamship  companies  can  generally  demonstrate  the 
superior  speed  and  advantages  of  their  vessels  over 
those  of  their  rivals,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the 
Inman  representatives  will  be  found  wanting  in  this 
particular. 

The  Inman  Company  had  great  hopes  of  the 
City  of  Rome,  which  was  at  the  time  of  her  launch 
next  in  size  to  the  Great  Eastern,  and  the  disap- 
pointment at  her  failure  w^as  in  proportion  to  the 
previous  hopes,  as  she  had  been  expected  to  sur- 
pass every  thing  afloat.  She  was  constructed  by 
the  Barrow  Ship-Building  Company.  The  Inman 
Company  refused  to  accept  her  on  account  of  her 
serious  deficiencies  in  speed,  carrying  capacity, 
draught  of  water,  and  consumption  of  coal,  and 
began  a  suit  for  damages.  The  Barrow  Company 
agreed  to  take  her  back  and  pay  all  the  expenses 
of  the  Inman  Company  in  regard  to  the  ship  rather 
than  let  the  case  go  into  court.  Since  her  altera- 
tion she  is  said  to  have  done  satisfactory  service, 
but  she  has  been  the  cause  of  much  discussion  as 
to  the  advantages  or  the  reverse  of  very  large 
steamers. 

The  following  figures  regarding  the  City  of 
Rome  will  interest  the  sea-going  reader  : 

Length  over  all,  586  feet;  extreme  breadth,  52 
feet  3  inches;  depth  of  hold,  37  feet;  tonnage, 


390 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


8,415;  indicated  horse-power,  10,000;  her  dead 
weight  is  8,oco,  and  her  displacement  at  26  feet 
draft  is  13,000  tons;  the  cubical  contents  of  her 
hold  at  50  feet  to  the  ton  are  7,720  tons.  She  has 
eleven  water-tight  compartments  formed  by  bulk- 
heads, which  extend  to  the  main  deck.  The  largest 
compartment  is  sixty  feet  long,  and  it  is  claimed 
that  the  trim  of  the  vessel  will  not  be  materially 
altered  when  one  of  the  compartments  is  filled  with 
water.  The  steamer  has  four  masts  and  three  fun- 
nels ;  her  propeller  is  24  feet  in  diameter,  driven 
by  three  sets  of  inverted  ''tandem"  engines  work- 
ing on  three  cranks  arranged  at  angles  of  1 20  de- 
grees with  each  other.  With  this  arrangement  the 
engine  can  never  ''catch  on  the  centre." 

The  unscientific  reader  may  skip  the  following 
details  of  the  engines  : 

"  Three  high-pressure  cylinders,  43  inches  diameter ;  3 
low-pressure  cylinders,  86  inches  diameter  ;  6  feet  stroke ; 
diameter  of  crank-shaft,  25  inches  ;  diameter  of  crank-pins, 
26  inches;  length  of  main  bearings,  33  inches;  of  crank- 
pins,  28  inches.  The  crank-shaft  weighs  64  tons ;  if  it 
had  been  of  iron,  and  solid,  it  would  have  weighed  73 
tons.  Propeller  shafting,  ^4  inches  diameter  ;  hole  through 
it,  14  inches  diameter;  thrust-shaft  has  13  collars,  39J 
inches  diameter,  giving  a  surface  of  6,000  square  inches, 
and  it  weighs  17  tons;  propeller-shaft  is  25  inches  diame- 
ter, and  weighs  18  tons  ;  bedplate,  100  tons  ;  cooling  sur- 
face of  condensers,  17,000  square  feet;  8  cylindrical  tubu- 
lar boilers,  with  furnaces  at  both  ends  ;  each  boiler  is  19 


THE  CITY  OF  ROME, 


feet  long  and  14  feet  diameter,  with  steam-receiver  13 
feet  long  and  4  feet  diameter  ;  each  boiler  has  3  furnaces 
at  each  end,  or  48  furnaces  in  all  ;  furnaces,  8  feet  9  inches 
diameter;  fire-bars,  6  feet  long,  giving  a  grate-surface  of 
1,080  feet  ;  boilers  are  constructed  for  a  working  pressure 
of  90  pounds  to  the  square  inch  ;  engines  are  intended  to 
work  at  8,000-horse  power,  but  can  be  developed  up  to 
10,000/' 

Working  at  three-quarters  speed,  with  45  revo- 
lutions a  minute,  the  City  of  Rome  made  15^ 
knots  per  hour  on  her  trial  trip.  The  maximum 
speed  is  60  revolutions,  which  will  give  a  velocity 
of  18  knots.  Her  coal  consumption  is  variously 
stated,  but  is  probably  much  in  excess  of  three 
hundred  tons  daily.  In  accommodations  for  pas- 
sengers, the  City  of  Rome  is  fully  up  to  the 
standard  of  excellence  that  could  be  expected  in 
a  ship  of  her  size.  She  is  longer  than  either  the 
Etruria,  Umbria,  or  Servia,  of  the  Cunard  Line, 
but  less  wide  and  deep  ;  consequently  her  interior 
measurement  is  about  the  same  as  that  of  those 
giants  of  the  deep. 

The  service  of  the  Inman  Line  steamers  was 
suspended  during  the  Crimean  War,  as  the  three 
steamers  it  then  possessed  were  chartered  for 
transports  by  the  French  Government.  On  the 
conclusion  of  peace  with  Russia  the  service  was 
resumed,  and,  though  several  of  the  company's 
steamers  have  since  been  engaged  at  different 
times  in  the  transport  service  of  the  British  Gov- 


392 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


ernment,  there  has  been  no  suspension  of  the 
transatlantic  work. 

The  Hamburg- American  Packet  Company,  per- 
forming a  weekly  service  between  New  York  and 
Hamburg,  touching  at  Plymouth  and  Cherbourg, 
was  organized  in  1847  with  a  line  of  sailing  ships. 
The  establishment  of  the  Inman  Line  with  its  ac- 
commodations for  steerage  passengers  threatened 
to  destroy  the  business  of  the  sailing  packets,  and 
in  1855  the  German  company  built  two  steamers, 
the  Hammonia  and  Borussia.  The  Crimean  War 
caused  a  demand  for  neutral  transports,  so  that 
the  two  steamers  were  chartered  to  the  French 
and  English  governments,  and  did  not  go  into 
service  as  transatlantic  packets  until  1856.  The 
Borussia  was  the  pioneer  of  the  line,  reaching 
New  York  on  the  i6th  of  June  of  that  year.  The 
Hammonia  followed  a  fortnight  later,  and  as  fast 
as  other  steamers  could  be  put  on  the  old  sailing 
packets  were  withdrawn.  The  line  was  popular 
from  the  start,  as  the  company  was  already  well 
known  through  its  sailing  ships. 

The  Bavaria  and  Teutonia  were  the  immediate 
successors  of  the  Borussia  and  Hammonia.  They 
were  respectively  of  2,273  2,034  tons,  built  of 
iron,  and  propelled  by  screws.  Then  followed  the 
Saxonia,  of  2,404  tons  ;  then  the  Germania,  and 
then,  in  1867,  came  a  new  Hammonia,  of  2,967 
tons,  the  old  one  having  been  withdrawn  and  sold. 


HAMBURG  AND  BREMEN  LINES.  393 


In  the  same  year  appeared  the  Cimbria,  about  the 

size  of  the  new  Hammonia,  and  in  1868  the  Hol- 

satia  and  WestphaHa,  the  latter  of  3,500  tons,  and 

the  former  nearly  as  large.-    In  1869  the  Silesia 

was  added  to  the  fleet,  and  in  1870  the  Thuringia. 

Since   then  the   Frisia,   Pommerania,  and  Suevia 

have  been  placed  on  the  route,  the  last-named  and 

the  largest,  on  the  list  measuring  360  feet  long,  41 

feet  beam,  and  26  feet  deep.     Her  measurement 

is  3,624  tons. 

In  addition  to  its  New  York  line,  the  company 

has  a  line  from  Hamburg  to  the  West  Indies  and 

Aspinwall,  and  it  still  maintains  its  fleet  of  sailing 

ships  for  voyages  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  Asiatic 

waters  in  general.     In   1873    some  enterprising 

merchants  of  Hamburor  started  a  rival  service  to 

<_> 

New  York,  known  as  the  Eagle  Line,  and  com- 
posed of  magnificent  steamers.  It  proved  a  losing 
operation  from  the  start,  and  was  eventually 
bought  up  by  the  Hamburg-American  Company. 
Some  of  the  Eagle  steamers  are  now  used  on  the 
New  York  route,  and  others  have  been  sold  at 
an  enormous  reduction  from  the  original  cost. 

Two  years  after  the  arrival  of  the  Borussia  at 
New  York  as  the  pioneer  of  the  Hamburg  Line,  a 
company  ot  merchants  of  Bremen  established  the 
service  known  as  the  North  -  German  Lloyd.s. 
Bremen  is  commercially  a  rival  of  Hamburg,  and 
the  merchants  of  the  two  citic    vi-:  with  each  other 


394 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


in  enterprises  of  a  maritime  character.  Each  had 
a  Hne  of  sailing  ships  to  New  York,  and  when 
Hamburg  estabhshed  a  steam  Hne  there  was 
nothing  for  Bremen  to  do  but  follow  its  example. 
Hence  the  North  German  Lloyd  Steamship  Com- 
pany, which  has  its  head-quarters  at  Bremen,  and 
runs  between  Bremerhaven  and  New  York,  touch- 
ing at  Southampton  and  Havre. 

In  the  twenty  years  following  its  inception  in 
1857  the  steamships  of  this  company  made  over 
twenty-five  hundred  voyages  across  the  Atlantic 
and  carried  nearly  seven  hundred  thousand  passen- 
gers, of  whom  one  hundred  and  eight  thousand 
were  in  the  first  cabin.  At  present  there  is  a 
weekly  service  between  New  York  and  Bremen, 
and  the  company  also  has  a  line  from  Bremen  to 
New  Orleans.  The  Hamburg  and  Bremen  lines 
have  each  between  twenty-five  and  thirty  steamers, 
and  maintain  a  pretty  active  competition,  though 
the  managers  are  shrewd  enough  not  to  ruin  busi- 
ness by  reducing  prices  of  freight  and  passage  be- 
low a  remunerative  point.  The  steamers  of  both 
companies  are  built  in  England,  nearly  all  on  the 
Clyde,  and  the  descriptions  of  those  of  one  com- 
pany will  answer,  in  general  terms,  for  those  of  the 
other.  A  distinctive  feature  of  the  Bremen  line  is 
the  naming  of  the  steamers  after  German  rivers — 
probably  because  they  run  rapidly — but  this  rule  is 
not  inflexibly  kept.     Students  of  the  geography  of 


39^ 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


the  Teutonic  empire  will  recognize  the  natural 
watercourses  of  the  country  in  the  appellations  of 
the  Bremen  steamers  Oder,  Mosel,  Rhein,  Main, 
Donau,  Elbe,  Weser,  Werra,  and  others. 

The  newest  steamers  of  the  Bremen  line  are  the 
Elbe,  Werra,  Eider,  Ems,  and  Fulda.  The  Eider 
and  Ems  are  about  7,000  tons  gross  register,  and 
measure  455  feet  in  length,  47  feet  in  breadth,  and 
38  feet  in  depth.  The  Werra  and  Fulda  are  about 
6,000  tons  gross  register,  and  of  the  following  di- 
mensions :  length,  455  feet;  breadth,  46  feet; 
depth,  37  feet.  The  Elbe  is  about  5,000  tons  gross, 
and  measures  445  feet  in  length,  45  feet  in  breadth, 
and  36  feet  6  inches  in  depth.  In  the  interior  and 
exterior  arrangements  and  fittings  the  steamers  are 
very  much  alike.  All  the  deck  work  is  constructed 
either  of  teak  or  iron.  With  a  view  to  protect  the 
vessels  from  heavy  seas,  strongly  constructed  iron 
turtle-backs  are  placed  over  both  ends  of  the  ships. 
In  the  centre  of  the  upper  deck  is  a  promenade 
deck  about  180  feet  long  and  the  whole  width  of 
the  ship,  solely  appropriated  to  the  use  of  first- 
class  passengers.  In  addition  to  the  accommoda- 
tions for  the  officers  and  crew,  i  70  in  number,  the 
vessels  are  designed  to  carry  150  first-class  and  150 
second-class,  besides  the  steerage  passengers. 

The  engines  are  of  the  compound  three-cylinder 
type,  with  one  high-pressure  cylinder  and  two  low- 
pressure,  having  a  stroke  of  five  feet,  and  propelling 


THE  ANCHOR  LINE. 


397 


the  vessels  at  the  average  of  seventeen  knots  an 
hour.  The  crank-shafts  are  entirely  of  Krupp's 
crucible  cast-steel,  built  up  of  several  pieces  on 
a  system  insuring  almost  absolute  safety  from 
breakage. 

Betwixt  and  between  "  the  Hamburg  and 
Bremen  lines  in  1855  and  1857  came  the  Anchor 
Line,  which  was  started  in  1856.  History  repeats 
itself  in  the  inception  of  steamship  lines  and  the 
careers  of  their  originators.  The  stories  of  Van- 
derbilt,  Cunard,  and  Inman  find  a  parallel  in  the 
story  of  the  founders  of  the  Anchor  Line. 

There  were  four  Scotch  boys  at  Glasgow  in  1830 
or  about  that  year,  who  began  active  life  in  fishing 
and  coasting  smacks  ;  from  these  they  graduated 
into  schooners,  and  so  on  through  all  the  grade  of 
vessels  till  they  arrived  at  steamers,  became  their 
commanders  and  eventually  their  owners.  They 
formed  the  firm  of  Handyside  &  Henderson, 
which  established  the  now  famous  Anchor  Line. 
Recently  the  firm  name  has  become  Henderson 
Brothers. 

Their  first  maritime  adventures  as  a  business 
firm  were  in  the  Mediterranean  fruit  trade  with 
small  sailing  vessels.  Then  they  bought  the 
steamer  Inez  de  Castro,  and  then  another  small 
one.  They  converted  the  sailing  ships  John  Bell 
and  Tempest  into  auxiliary  steamers,  and  with 
them  started  the  Anchor  Line  in  1856.    The  Tem- 


398 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


pest  was  the  pioneer  of  the  Hne,  and — like  the  City 
of  Glasgow,  the  pioneer  of  the  Inman  Line — she  was 
lost  at  sea  with  all  on  board.  The  Tempest  sailed 
from  New  York  for  Glasgow  on  the  nth  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1857  —  her  second  return  trip, — and  was 
never  heard  of  afterwards.  The  dread  word 
''missing"  must  be  placed  after  the  names  of 
two  other  steamers  of  the  Anchor  Line— The 
United  Kingdom  and  Ismailia  ;  the  former  hav- 
ing disappeared  at  sea  in  1869  and  the  latter  in 
1873.  ^ 

Beginning  business  with  the  John  Bell  and  Tem- 
pest in  1 856,  the  Anchor  Line  grew  so  rapidly,  that 
within  fifteen  years  it  had  built  seventeen  steamers 
for  its  transatlantic  service  and  thirty  more  for  the 
Mediterranean.  At  present  it  has  a  regular  weekly 
service  between  New  York  and  Glasgow,  and  an- 
other in  summer  between  New  York  and  Liver- 
pool. At  different  times  it  has  had  a  service  be- 
tween New  York  and  London,  which  is  maintained 
or  suspended  according  to  the  exigencies  of  busi- 
ness. Then  it  has  a  fortnightly  line  from  Glasgow 
to  the  principal  ports  of  the  Mediterranean,  and 
some  of  its  Mediterranean  steamers  continue  their 
course  to  Bombay,  and  occasionally  to  Calcutta  and 
Singapore. 

Like  the  other  steamship  companies  the  Anchor 
Line  has  increased  from  time  to  time  the  size,  speed, 
and  accommodations  of  its  vessels,  according  to  the 


THE  ANCHOR  LINE, 


399 


lemands  of  the  period  and  the  operations  of  rivals. 
The  Tempest — the  pioneer  of  the  Hne — measured 
less  than  800  tons.  The  steamers  that  immediately 
succeeded  her  were  of  larger  size,  and  these  again 
were  succeeded  by  others  still  larger.  Each  year 
saw  a  hundred  tons  and  more  added  to  the  size  of 
steamers  until,  in  1872  (sixteen  years  after  the  ad- 
vent of  the  800-ton  Tempest),  came  the  California 
of  3,208  tons,  a  length  of  362  feet,  and  engines  of 
1,047-horse  power.  Then  followed  the  Bolivia, 
4,000  tons  ;  the  Anchoria,  Circassia,  and  Devonia, 
each  4,200  tons;  the  Belgravia,  5,000  tons,  and 
lastly,  the  Furnessia,  6,500  tons.  The  Furnessia 
is  445  feet  long,  45  feet  beam,  35  feet  deep,  and 
when  loaded  to  26  feet  of  water,  her  displacement 
is  9,900  tons.  Her  engines  are  3,5oo-horse  power, 
and  her  propeller  is  20  feet  in  diameter.  The  Fur- 
nessia is  brig-rigged  and  has  two  smoke-stacks,  and 
at  the  time  of  her  launching,  in  1881,  she  was  the 
largest  ship  that  had  been  built  in  England,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Great  Eastern.  As  stated 
elsewhere,  the  City  of  Rome  now  belongs  to  the 
Anchor  Line. 

The  other  lines  now  running  between  New  York 
and  the  ports  of  the  Old  World  do  not  belong  to 
the  pioneer  or  experimental  times  of  ocean  steam 
navigation,  as  all  have  been  started  within  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  after  the  business  became  a 
fixed  fact,  and  there  was  no  longer  the  smallest 


400 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


question  of  the  success  of  navigating  the  Atlantic 
with  steam-propelled  vessels.  We  will  consider 
the  most  important  of  these  lines  in  the  order  of 
their  antiquity. 

The  Compagnie  Generale  Transatlantique," 
better  known  to  Americans  as  the  French  Mail 
Line,"  was  established  in  1862,  and  maintains  a 
weekly  service  between  Havre  and  New  York  with 
large  and  powerful  steamships.  It  has  also  a  line 
to  the  West  Indies  and  Aspinwall  from  Havre,  an- 
other to  the  West  Indies  and  Mexico  from  St.  Na- 
zaire,  and  smaller  lines  through  the  Mediterranean. 
Altogether,  it  employs  some  sixty  or  seventy  steam- 
ers and  receives  a  liberal  subsidy  from  the  French 
Government  for  the  transportation  of  the  mails. 

Its  service  to  New  York  began  with  steamers  of 
about  2,500  tons.  In  a  few  years  these  vessels  were 
replaced  by  steamers  of  about  3,500  tons  (the  Pe- 
reire,  St.  Laurent,  Ville  de  Paris,  Lafayette,  and 
Washington),  and  later  these  were  followed  by  the 
Amerique,  France,  Labrador,  and  Canada,  of  4,5oo 
tons.  Now  these  last  are  being  withdrawn  to  make 
way  for  the  Normandie,  Champagne,  Bourgogne, 
Gascogne,  and  Bretagne.  The  Normandie  was 
built  in  England  and  measures  6,300  tons  with 
7,000-horse  power.  The  other  new  steamers  are 
from  the  company's  ship-yards  at  St.  Nazaire,  un- 
der the  new  French  bounty  system,  and  are  claimed 
to  be  second  to  no  other  steamships  afloat.  The 


THE  ''FRENCH  MAIL:' 


401 


description  of  one  of  these  French-built  steamers 
will  answer  for  all,  as  they  differ  in  only  a  few  un- 
important details. 

The  La  Champagne,  the  first  of  the  above 
new  ships,  was  the  largest  steamer  ever  built  in 
any  French  ship-yard  for  the  merchant  marine. 
She  is  entirely  of  steel,  and  has  four  complete 
decks,  with  a  roomy  poop-deck  and  whale-back 
forecastle  connected  by  a  bridge-deck  amidships, 
making  a  promenade  of  492  feet.  She  has  two 
elliptical  funnels  and  four  masts,  the  fore,  and  main- 
mast rigged  for  square  sails. 

She  has  a  double  bottom,  divided  into  tanks, 
holding  a  capacity  of  650  tons  for  ballast.  The 
dimensions  of  the  La  Champagne  are  as  follows  : 
length,  508  feet  9  inches  ;  breadth,  59  feet  5  inches  ; 
depth  of  hold,  43  feet  6  inches  ;  mean  draft  loaded, 
24  feet  6  inches,  with  a  corresponding  displace- 
ment of  10,045  tons.  The  capacity  for  cargo  in 
the  hold  alone  will  be  1,950  cubic  tons.  The  ca- 
pacity of  the  coal  bunkers  will  be  1,677  cubic 
tons  (stowing  1,800  tons  coal).  The  La  Cham- 
pagne has  superior  accommodation  for  300  cabin 
passengers,  and  also  for  900  steerage  passengers. 
She  is  fitted  with  every  improvement  for  the 
comfort  and  safety  of  passengers.  The  saloons 
and  cabins  are  lighted  by  electric  lamps,  and  an- 
nunciators connect  with  the  steward's  department 
from  each  room.     Twenty-four  of  the  staterooms 


402 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


on  each  ship  are  fitted  with  single  berths,  a  great 
blessing  to  those  who  dislike  to  share  the  restric- 
tions of  a  cabin  with  any  one  else.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  other  companies  will  follow  the  example 
of  their  Gallic  competitors. 

The  engines  of  the  La  Champagne  develop 
8,000  indicated  horse  power,  and  give  a  speed  of 
18  knots  per  hour.  The  engines  are  of  the  triple 
expansion  style,  and  have  six  cylinders  ;  they  are 
among  the  most  powerful  of  this  type,  and  are 
estimated  to  work  with  less  consumption  of 
coal  than  any  engines  previously  in  use.  The 
boilers  are  entirely  of  steel,  stamped  for  a 
pressure  of  120  pounds.  There  are  36  furnaces, 
of  41  inches  diameter.  One  of  the  great  ad- 
vantages claimed  by  the  French  mail  agents  is  that 
passengers  for  the  Continent  avoid  the  discomforts 
of  crossing  the  channel  and  the  transfer  by  railway, 
thus  saving  much  time,  trouble,  and  expense. 
Recently  they  have  advertised  that  a  special  fast 
train  starts  from  alongside  the  steamer  upon  its 
arrival  at  Havre,  and  connects  at  Paris  with  trains 
for  interior  points  of  Europe. 

The  National  Line,  running  between  New  York 
and  Liverpool,  was  started  in  1863  with  the  iron 
screw  steamers  Louisiana,  Virginia,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, one  of  them  measuring  3,000  tons  and  the 
others  3,5oo  each.  In  1864  the  Erin,  Queen,  and 
Helvetia,  about  4,5oo  tons  each,  were  added  to  the 


THE  NATIONAL  LINE. 


403 


fleet,  and  in  i865  came  the  England  and  Denmark, 
the  former  of  4,900  tons  and  the  latter  of  3,724.  In 
1868  the  Italy,  4,169  tons  and  5oo-horse  power,  was 
brought  out,  and  she  is  worthy  of  note  as  the  first 
transatlantic  steamship  on  which  compound  engines 
were  used.  The  Egypt,  4,670  tons,  and  Spain,  4,5 12 
tons,  followed  in  1871,  and  the  Canada  and  Greece 
of  about  the  same  tonnage  a  year  latter. 

With  the  increase  of  its  fleet  the  Company  added 
a  New^  York  and  London  line  to  its  service  in  addi- 
tion to  the  original  one  between  New  York  and 
Liverpool.  At  the  beginning  of  its  enterprise  and 
for  a  long  time  afterwards  the  National  Line  ran  its 
ships  upon  the  principle  that  safety  was  the  first 
consideration  and  speed  the  second,  and  no  effort 
was  made  to  build  up  a  record  for  quick  passages. 
Nevertheless,  several  of  its  ships  repeatedly  made 
the  voyage  from  Queenstown  to  Sandy  Hook  inside 
of  nine  days,  and  as  they  combined  good  accommo- 
dations with  a  reputation  for  prudence,  they  obtained 
considerable  popularity  among  the  many  travellers 
to  whom  an  extra  day  or  two  on  the  ocean  was  not 
a  hardship.  The  company  insured  its  own  ships 
and  gave  to  the  captains  and  officers  of  each  steamer 
an  extra  compensation  yearly  when  there  were  no 
accidents  to  their  discredit. 

The  captains  are  instructed  to  take  a  southerly 
course  in  the  season  when  ice  may  be  expected,  and 
at  other  times  to  keep  well  to  the  south  of  the  Virgin 


404 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Rocks.  The  following  paragraph  is  taken  from  the 
Instructions  to  Commanders  : — 

**The  commanders,  while  using  every  diligence  to  insure 
a  speedy  voyage,  are  prohibited  from  running  any  risk 
whatever  that  might  result  in  accidents  to  their  ships. 
They  must  ever  bear  in  mind  that  the  safety  of  the  ships 
and  the  lives  and  property  on  board  is  to  be  the  ruling 
principle  that  must  govern  them  in  the  navigation  of  their 
ships,  and  no  supposed  gain  in  expedition  or  saving  of 
time  on  the  voyage  is  to  be  purchased  at  the  risk  of  acci- 
dents. The  company  desires  to  establish  and  maintain 
the  reputation  of  the  steamers  for  safety,  and  expect  such 
expedition  on  their  voyage  as  is  consistent  with  safe 
navigation.'' 

Recently  the  company  has  added  to  its  fleet  the 
fast  steamer  America,  w^hich  was  specially  built  for 
its  service,  and  it  promises  other  and  equally  fast 
ships  in  the  future. 

The  America  is  built  of  steel  and  is  of  the  follow- 
ing dimensions  : — Extreme  length,  480  ;  extreme 
breadth,  5ii  feet;  depth  of  hold,  36  feet;  gross 
tonnage,  about  6,5oo  tons.  She  is  divided  into 
thirteen  compartments  by  complete  transverse  bulk- 
heads, extending  to  the  upper  deck  in  all  cases  but 
two.  The  builders  guaranteed  a  speed  of  18  knots 
an  hour,  equal  to  21  geographical  miles.  On  her 
passage  from  Glasgow  she  even  excelled  this  speed. 
The  engines  are  three  cylinder  compound,  one  63 
inches,  and  two  91  inches,  with  a  stroke  of  66  inches. 
They  are  fitted  with  piston  valves  on  all  the  cylinders. 


THE  COMPOUND  MARINE  ENGINE,  405 

The  boilers  are  seven  in  number,  having  thirty-nine 
furnaces  in  all,  and  a  working  pressure  of  95  lbs. 

The  passenger  accommodations  of  the  America 
are  of  the  most  approved  character,  and  the  ship  is 
lighted  throughout  by  electricity.  The  saloon  is  5 1 
feet  long  and  extends  the  whole  width  of  the  ship,  and 
the  nine  dining  tables  have  a  seating  capacity  of  2  5o. 

We  will  leave  our  chronological  account  for  a 
short  time  to  consider  two  of  the  most  important 
steps  in  ocean  steam  navigation, — the  compound  en- 
gine and  the  increased  length  of  ships  in  proportion 
to  their  width. 

The  steamboat  was  not  possible  with  the  engine 
of  Newcomen,  on  account  of  the  great  space  it  occu- 
pied and  the  large  amount  of  fuel  it  consumed  for  a 
given  amount  of  power.  When  James  Watt  at- 
tached the  condenser  to  the  Newcomen  engine,  in 
1763,  and  substituted  the  pressure  of  steam  for  that 
of  the  atmosphere,  in  the  downward  course  of  the 
piston,  he  opened  the  way  for  the  inventions  of  Fitch 
and  Fulton.  Admitting  steam  on  both  sides  of  the 
piston,  he  doubled  the  power  of  the  engine,  and  by 
condensing  the  steam  in  a  separate  condenser,  instead 
of  cooling  the  cylinder  at  every  pulsation,  he  made  a 
still  greater  economy.  Year  by  year  the  steam  en- 
gine was  improved,  and  when  the  machinery  of  the 
Clermont  was  ordered  from  Boulton  &  Watt,  of 
Birmingham,  an  immense  progress  had  been  made 
over  the  apparatus  of  Newcomen. 


4o6 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


The  list  of  improvements  in  the  steam-engine  since 
the  beginning  of  the  century  would  be  tedious  to  the 
general  reader,  and  besides  many  of  them  would 
have  no  special  bearing  upon  the  problem  of  steam 
navigation.  Those  who  wish  to  be  further  informed 
on  this  subject  are  referred  to  special  works  by 
Bourne,  King,  Thurston,  and  others,  and  to  the  arti- 
cle on  "  steam  "  in  any  good  cyclopedia. 


Oscillating  Marine  Engine.    Transverse  Section  Through  Vessel. 


Watt's  engines  were  worked  with  a  pressure  of 
from  six  to  ten  pounds  of  steam  above  that  of  the 
atmosphere.  The  condenser  gave  an  additional 
pressure  of  fifteen  pounds,  as  it  created  a  vacuum  by 
condensation  of  the  steam,  so  that  the  entire  power 
of  a  Watt  engine  may  be  computed  at  the  pressure 


THE  COMPOUND  MARINE  ENGINE, 


407 


of  steam  in  the  boiler  added  to  that  of  the  natural 
atmospheric  pressure.  In  England  and  the  eastern 
parts  of  the  United  States,  the  early  steamboats  were 
fitted  with  condensing  engines — low  pressure — while 
those  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers  had  no 
condensers,  but  discharged  the  steam  directly  into 
the  air.  The  latter  were,  and  still  are,  known  as 
high-pressure  engines.  Scientists  have  objected  to 
the  terms  low  and  high  pressure,  but  they  are  cer- 
tainly more  comprehensive  to  the  ordinary  mind 
than  the  more  appropriate  appellations  of  condensing 
or  non-condensing  engines.  The  reader  who  does 
not  care  to  trouble  himself  with  particulars  may  de- 
termine for  himself  that  the  engine  which  discharges 
steam  by  puffs  "  into  the  air  is  a  high-pressure  one, 
while  that  which  does  its  work  in  comparative  silence 
and  without  emitting  steam  is  a  low-pressure  affair. 

Fairbairn's  Useful  Information  for  Engineers " 
contains  the  following: 

Notwithstanding  the  variety  of  forms  into  which  it 
has  been  moulded,  the  steam-engine  is  still  the  same 
machine  in  all  its  simplicity  of  principle  as  when  it 
came  from  the  hands  of  Watt  ;  it  has  the  same  recip- 
rocating action,  the  same  principles  of  separate  con- 
densation, and  the  same  mechanical  organization  as 
it  had  in  1784.  What  can  exceed  in  beauty  of  con- 
trivance the  parallel  motion,  the  governor,  and  other 
motions  by  which  this  wonderful  machine  is  ren- 
dered effective  }    Innumerable  attempts  have  been 


4o8 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


made  at  its  improvement,  and  yet,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  working  high-pressure  steam  expansively, 
and  by  this  means  economizing  fuel,  there  has  been 
no  change  in  the  principle  of  the  steam-engine, 
either  in  its  condensing  or  non-condensing  form.  It 
is  still  the  engine  of  Watt  ;  his  name  is  stamped  as 
indelibly  upon  it  as  Newton's  upon  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation." 

Newcomen's  was  a  beam  engine  and  so  was 
Watt's,  but  the  latter  was  the  more  complete  of  the 
two.  The  beam  as  it  was  found  in  Watt's  engine  be- 
came  the  walking-beam  "  of  the  steamboat.  It  was 
first  known  as  a  "  working-beam,"  and  the  corrup- 
tion of  "  working  "  into  walking  "  was  by  no  means 
difficult.  The  cross-head  "  engine  was  generally 
adopted  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  and  fol- 
lowed by  the  side-lever  "  engine.  The  working- 
beam  "  engine  has  become  the  peculiar  property  of 
the  United  States,  and  it  is  as  popular  here  as  it  is 
unpopular  abroad. 

Passing  by  several  minor  improvements  in  the 
steam  engine,  since  the  days  of  Watt,  we  will  come 
at  once  to  the  great  improvement  which  has  been  of 
immense  importance  to  marine  navigation, — the  com- 
pound engine. 

In  the  compound  engine  steam  at  a  pressure  of 
from  60  to  100  pounds  is  admitted  to  the  high-pres- 
sure cylinder  ;  after  performing  its  work  there  it  is 
admitted  to  the  low-pressure  cylinder,  where  it  is  em- 


THE  COMPOUND  MARINE  ENGINE, 


409 


ployed  over  again  as  in  the  ordinary  condensing 
engine.  The  high-pressure  cylinder  is  much  smaller 
than  the  low-pressure  one  ;  the  steam  is  used  twice, 
that  from  the  top  of  the  smaller  cylinder  going  to  the 
bottom  of  the  larger  one,  while  that  from  the  bottom 
of  the  smaller  goes  to  the  top  of  the  larger.  By 
means  of  a  surface  condenser  the  steam  is  reduced 
to  water  and  returned  to  the  boilers,  where  it  is  again 
converted  to  steam  and  may  be  used  over  and  over 
again  indefinitely.  Latterly  nearly  all  the  large 
steamers  built  for  the  merchant  service  are  provided 
with  engines  on  the  triple-expansion  system. 

The  principle  of  the  compound  engine  was  long 
discussed  but  not  practically  tried  until  after  i865. 
It  was  immediately  found  that  there  was  a  saving  in 
coal  of  not  far  from  forty  per  cent,  over  the  condens- 
ing engines  then  in  use.  From  that  time  all  new  steam- 
ers were  fitted  with  compound  engines,  and  in  many 
cases  arrangements  were  made  for  taking  out  the  old 
style  of  engines  from  ships  already  on  the  water  and 
substituting  the  compound.  Not  only  was  there  a  sav- 
ing in  the  cost  of  fuel  but  the  reduction  of  the  quantity 
to  be  carried  on  a  voyage  gave  greater  space  for  freight 
and  passengers,  and  required  fewer  men  to  manage 
the  fires,  supply  coal  to  the  firemen,  and  hoist  out 
cinders.  A  comparison  of  the  performances  of  the 
modern  steamers  with  the  early  ones  has  been  made 
in  the  account  of  the  Cunard  Line. 

Compound  engines  were  introduced  into  the  Brit- 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


ish  Navy  in  1870.  In  1871  Chief-Engineer  King 
of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  made  a  strong  report  in  favor  of 
the  compound  engine,  and  stated  that  the  Fairfield 
Works  on  the  Clyde  had  completed  1 30  sets  of 
compound  engines  and  had  22  others  under  con- 
struction, all  for  ocean  steamers.  The  Secretary  of 
the  Navy  ordered  that  all  U.  S.  steamers  hereafter 
constructed,  or  old  steamers  requiring  new  engines, 
should  be  supplied  with  those  of  the  compound  pat- 
tern.   The  order  remains  unchanged  to  this  day. 

The  lengthening  of  ships  is  a  progressive  step  of 
great  importance  in  ocean  navigation,  and  while 
ships  have  been  made  much  longer  than  formerly 
the  shape  of  the  bow  has  been  greatly  changed. 
The  round,  swelling  bow  is  the  type  of  the  ship  of 
former  times,  and  even  down  to  the  days  of  many 
persons  by  no  means  old.  Builders  felt  that  the 
head  of  the  codfish  and  the  whale  formed  good 
models  for  ships,  and  as  those  inhabitants  of  the  sea 
were  rounded  in  front  their  outlines  were  adopted 
and  followed  for  a  very  long  time.  About  1832  Mr. 
Scott  Russell  designed  what  he  called  wave  lines  " 
for  the  bow  of  a  ship,  obtaining  his  idea  from  the 
shape  of  a  wave  set  in  motion  at  the  flow  of  water 
from  the  discharge  of  a  lock  of  a  canal.  The  lines 
of  the  stern  he  formed  by  studying  the  refilling  or 
following  wave,  and  when  his  lines  were  tried  upon 
ships  they  were  found  to  give  increased  speed. 

In  place  of  the  convex  bow  of  the  ships  of  former 


LENGTHENING  OF  SHIPS. 


411 


times  we  now  see  a  concave  surface,  giving  it  the 
shape  of  an  elongated  wedge,  slightly  hollowed  on 
its  face,  by  which  the  waters  are  more  easily  parted 
and  thrown  aside.  This  wedge  shape  is  extended  a 
long  distance  aft  and  sometimes  beyond  the  centre 
of  the  ship  ;  formerly  the  broadest  part  was  about 
one  third  of  the  distance  from  the  bow  to  the  stern, 
but  it  is  now  reversed  in  a  great  many  instances, 
even  when  the  old  proportions  are  retained  above 
the  water-line. 

The  old  proportions  of  length  to  width  were  as 
four  to  one,  as  will  be  found  by  examining  the  meas- 
urements of  English  and  Dutch  ships  of  two  or  three 
centuries  ago.  In  the  early  part  of  this  century  the 
proportions  were  changed  to  about  five  to  one,  and 
later  to  six  to  one.  From  this  there  has  been  a 
steady  change,  until  now  the  proportion  is  ten  or 
eleven  to  one.  Note  the  following  table,  showing 
the  change  of  proportion  in  successive  years,  and 
with  steamers  having  a  transatlantic  reputation. 


Name  of  steamer. 

Year 
built. 

Length  in 
feet. 

Breadth  in 
feet. 

Proportion  of  length 
to  breadth. 

Britannia 

1840 

207 

34 

6    to  I 

Asia  .... 

1850 

266 

40 

6i  "  I 

Persia  .... 

1855 

376 

45 

81  "  I 
9    "  I 

City  of  Bristol  . 

i860 

349 

38 

Russia  .... 

1867 

358 

42 

9l  "  I 

City  of  Berlin  . 

1874 

489 

45 

I0|   "  I 

City  of  Rome  . 

1881 

586 

52 

II        '*  I 

Since  the  City  of  Rome  was  built  there  seems  to 
have  been  a  pause  in  the  effort  to  ascertain  how 
long  it  is  possible  to  make  a  ship  and  have  her  hold 


412 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


together.  It  was  predicted  that  these  very  long 
ships  would  break  in  two  in  heavy  seas,  but  this  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  the  case.  Many  of  the  ships 
built  previous  to  1870  have  since  been  lengthened, 
and  in  some  cases  as  much  as  two  hundred  feet  have 
been  added  to  the  length.  It  is  not  done  by  build- 
ing on  at  the  bow  or  stern,  as  might  be  supposed, 
but  by  placing  the  ship  on  the  ways,  cutting  her  in 
two  near  the  middle,  drawing  the  two  sections  as  far 
apart  as  is  desired,  and  then  building  a  new  section 
into  the  open  space.  It  is  claimed  that  a  lengthened 
ship  is  just  as  strong  as  a  new  one.  Quite  likely 
this  is  the  case  with  iron  ships,  as  the  material  admits 
of  thorough  riveting  and  bracing,  but  it  would  hardly 
follow  with  a  ship  of  wood. 

The  practical  advantages  of  long  ships  over  short 
ones  are  in  the  carrying  capacity  proportioned  to  con- 
sumption of  fuel  with  equal  rates  of  speed.  Perhaps 
some  enterprising  genius  will  follow  the  theory, 
which  has  thus  far  proven  correct,  until  we  shall  have 
steamers  a  mile  or  two  in  length  with  no  more  beam 
than  the  Alaska  or  Etruria.  It  is  the  general  opin- 
ion of  ship-builders  and  commanders  that  the  limit  of 
length  to  breadth  has  been  reached,  or  very  nearly. 
It  is  not  likely  that  any  one  will  venture  beyond  the 
proportions  of  twelve  to  one,  but  in  this  progressive 
age  no  prediction  is  entirely  safe. 

When  Fulton  was  planning  his  steamboats  his 
proposal  to  use  wheels  met  with  much  opposition. 


FEATHERING  PADDLE-WHEEL. 


Many  long-headed  men  thought  that  the  angle  at 
which  the  float  enters  and  leaves  the  water,  pressing 
it  down  in  the  former  case  and  lifting  it  in  the  other, 
would  cause  such  a  loss  of  power  that  the  boat  would 
make  very  little  advance  as  the  wheels  turned.  The 
success  of  the  Clermont  demonstrated  the  incorrect- 


The  P'eathering  Paddle-Wheel. 


ness  of  their  theories,  but  it  continued  to  be  evident 
that  the  wheel  with  fixed  floats  was  operated  under 
some  disadvantages.  The  continued  study  of  this 
subject  led  to  the  invention  of  the  feathering " 
paddle-wheel. 

By  means  of  this  wheel  the  floats  or  buckets  pre- 


414 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


sent  a  perpendicular  surface  to  the  water,  or  very 
nearly  so,  during  all  the  time  of  their  immersion. 
It  has  been  found  that  a  feathering  wheel  has  the 
same  action  on  the  water  as  a  wheel  of  twice  its 
diameter  with  fixed  arms.  There  is  a  considerable 
economy  in  space,  cost,  and  weight,  but  in  spite  of 
these  advantages  the  invention  has  not  obtained  the 
popularity  which  might  naturally  be  looked  for. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


The  Guion  Steamship  Line — The  Greyhound  of  the  Atlantic — The  White 
and  Red  Star  Lines — The  Monarch  Line  and  its  largest  passenger — 
Other  Transatlantic  lines — Origin  of  the  "P.  &  O."  Company — Its 
Growth  and  Extent  of  its  Service — The  Messageries  Maritimes — German 
line  to  Asia  and  Australia — Other  great  lines — The  Ocean  Tramp — 
Ocean  Steam-Tonnage  of  the  World. 

IN  August,  1866,  the  iron  screw-steamer  Manhat- 
tan sailed  from  Liverpool  for  New  York  as  the 
pioneer  of  the  Williams  &  Guion  line  of  steamers, 
popularly  known  as  the  Guion  Line,  and  having  the 
corporate  title  of  the  Liverpool  and  Great  West- 
ern Steamship  Company."  The  Minnesota,  Ne- 
braska, Colorado,  Idaho,  Nevada,  Wisconsin,  rapidly 
followed  the  Manhattan,  all  iron  steamers  of  about 
3,000  tons  burthen  and  without  reputation  for  speed 
or  the  ability  to  make  it.  In  1873-74  came  the 
Montana  and  Dakota  of  about  3,5oo  tons  each, 
somewhat  more  speedy  than  the  steamers  of  the 
old  type,  but  still  unequal  to  the  Inman  and  Cunard 
boats. 

With  a  view  to  making  quick  voyages  over  the 
Atlantic  the  Guion  Company  built  three  new  steam- 
ers, the  Arizona,  Alaska,  and  Oregon,  which  were 
brought  out  in  the  order  named.  The  Alaska 
speedily  made  a  reputation  by  distancing  all  com- 


4i6 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


petitors  and  obtaining  the  appellation  of  The  Grey- 
hound of  the  Atlantic."  She  is  526  feet  long, 
5o  feet  broad,  and  40  feet  deep,  and  her  measure- 
ment is  about  8,000  tons.  Her  engines  are  com- 
pound with  three  cylinders,  inverted  ;   ti  e  high- 


Vertical  longitudinal  section  of  one  of  the  nine  boilers  of  the  Alaska." 

pressure  cylinder  is  68  inches  in  diameter,  and  the 
two  low-pressure  cylinders  100  inches  each,  and  the 
length  of  stroke  is  six  feet.  The  boilers  supply 
steam  at  100  pounds  pressure  and  she  burns  nearly 
if  not  quite  300  tons  of  coal  daily.    The  indicated 


4i8 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


horse  power  is  about  i,ooo.  The  ship  has  seven 
decks  and  two  smoke-stacks  ;  has  accommodations 
for  340  first-class  passengers,  60  second-class,  and 
1 ,100  steerage,  and  her  main  saloon  can  seat  280 
people  at  once. 

The  Arizona  and  Oregon  were  so  nearly  like  the 
Alaska  that  a  particular  description  is  unnecessary. 
The  Oregon  was  sold  to  the  Cunard  Company  ow- 
ing to  some  disputes  between  the  Guion  Company 
and  the  builders  of  the  ship,  but  both  before  and  af- 
ter her  possession  by  that  ancient  association  of 
mariners  she  made  a  high  reputation  for  speed  in 
crossing  the  Atlantic.  In  March,  1886,  she  was 
sunk  near  Fire  Island,  in  consequence  of  a  collision 
with  a  coal-laden  schooner,  and  was  a  total  loss. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  records  of  these 
steamers  : 

In  the  beginning  of  July,  1882,  the  Alaska  made 
the  run  from  Queenstown  to  New  York  in  seven 
days,  five  hours,  and  in  seven  days,  one  hour  home. 
She  then  accomplished  the  wonderful  performance 
of  crossing  in  six  days,  eighteen  hours,  and  thirty- 
seven  minutes  from  bar  to  bar.  The  Oregon  was 
then  added  to  the  Guion  fleet,  and  she  lowered  the 
record  to  six  days,  ten  hours,  and  ten  minutes. 
During  this  voyage  the  fastest  consecutive  three 
days'  running  was  made.  She  sailed  from  Queens- 
town  at  noon  on  April  13th,  and  arrived  at  New 
York  on  Saturday,  April  19th,  at  5.47  p.m.,  having 


THE   WHITE  STAR  LINE,  419 

run  2,861  miles.  On  April  17th  she  ran  470  miles  ; 
i8th,  469;  and  19th,  472 — or  1,411  nautical  miles 
in  three  days. 

Though  not  equalling  the  Alaska,  the  Arizona  is  a 
very  fast  ship,  having  repeatedly  made  the  transit  in 
little  more  than  seven  days.    The  Oregon's  quickest 


Half  Front  View  and  Half  Cross-section  of  One  of  the  Nine  Boilers  of 

the  Alaska. 

trip  was  six  days,  ten  hours,  and  four  minutes — the 
fastest  on  record  until  the  Etruria  appeared  on  the 
scene. 

In  1870  the  White  vStar  Line  of  steamships  burst 
upon  New  York  like  a  meteor — the  Oceanic  being 


420 


ROBEkT  FULTON', 


the  first  to  arrive  in  port.  Few  had  heard  of  the 
new  Hne,  but  very  speedily  the  papers  were  filled 
with  descriptions  of  the  Oceanic  and  of  the 
vessels  that  followed  her.  They  were  built  for 
speed  and  superior  accommodation  to  passengers. 
The  main  saloon  was  amidships,  instead  of  in  the 
stern,  as  was  then  usual,  and  it  was  not  inclosed  by 
staterooms,  but  extended  the  entire  width  of  the 
vessel.  In  place  of  the  old-fashioned  benches  or 
settees  at  the  tables,  each  person  had  a  chair  to 
himself,  and  could  enter  or  leave  without  disturb- 
ing any  one  else.  The  staterooms  were  likewise 
amidships  at  either  end  of  the  saloon,  and  the 
smoking-room  was  not  the  little  hole  of  former 
days,  but  a  comfortable  and  well -lighted  apart- 
ment. 

The  ships  of  the  White  Star  Line  were  built  at 
Belfast,  and  vary  from  3,700  to  5, 000  tons  in 
burthen.  The  company  has  adopted  the  distinc- 
tive termination  of  ic  "  for  the  names  of  its  ships, 
and  the  public  is  familiar  with  Germanic,  Britannic, 
Oceanic,  Baltic,  Celtic,  Republic,  Gaelic,  Arabic,  Belgic, 
Adriatic,  and  Coptic.  Varying  in  details,  there  is  a 
general  similarity  of  these  ships,  and  the  description 
of  one  will  suffice.  We  will  take  the  Coptic  as  an 
example,  and  the  following  are  her  dimensions  : 

Length,  430  feet;  width,  42  feet;  depth  of  hold, 
34  feet  ;  registered  measurement,  4,368  tons  ;  but 
she  can  carry  about  6,000  tons.    She  is  propelled 


THE  RED  STAR  LINE. 


421 


by  two  double-cylinder  engines  (compound)  of  45o- 
horse  power  at  90  pounds  pressure  of  steam.  She 
has  three  double  elliptic  boilers  with  four  fires  to 
each,  and  the  boilers  have  been  tested  to  180 
pounds.  The  hull  is  divided  into  eight  compart- 
ments, and  the  ship  is  lighted  throughout  by  elec- 
tricity. 

The  following  are  amongst  the  most  remarkable 
passages  of  the  steamers  of  the  White  Star  Line  : 


QUEENSTOWN  TO 
NEW  YORK. 

DAYS.  H. 

Germanic,  Apr.,  1877,  7  11 

Britannic,  Aug.,  1877,  7  10 

Celtic,       July,  1879,  ^  4 

Baltic,      Sept.,  1879,  8  o 

Republic,  Sept.,  1881,  8  i 

Britannic,  Aug.,   1883,  7  13 

Britannic,  Aug.,  1884,  7  ^7 

Adriatic,  Aug.,  1884,  8  i 


NEW  YORK 
TO  QUEENSTOWN. 


M. 

DAYS. 

H. 

37 

Feb., 

1876, 

7 

15 

53 

Dec, 

1876, 

7 

12 

25 

June, 

1879, 

8 

0 

6 

Dec, 

1880, 

8 

I 

20 

June, 

1881, 

8 

4 

39 

June, 

1883, 

7 

17 

22 

Oct., 

1884, 

7 

12 

22 

Nov., 

1884, 

7 

20 

The  Red  Star  Line  is  under  the  Belgian  flag, 
and  subsidized  by  His  Majesty,  the  King  of  the 
Belgians.  It  was  established  in  1873,  to  perform  a 
weekly  service  between  New  York  and  Antwerp, 
and  is  under  the  same  management  as  the  Ameri- 
can line  from  Philadelphia.  The  names  of  its 
steamers  end  in  ''land."  Some  of  them  are  new, 
while  others  are  former  favorites  which  grew  old  in 
the  service  of  the  Cunard  Line,  and  were  sold, 
lengthened,  transformed,  and  re-christened.  The 


422 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Waesland  is  the  old  Cunarder  Russia,  the  Zee- 
land  is  the  Java,  and  the  Pennland  is  the 
Algeria.  The  steamers  vary  from  3,000  to 
5,000  in  tonnage,  and  from  330  to  445  feet  in 
length.  They  make  the  voyage  between  Antwerp 
and  New  York  in  from  10  to  14  days,  and  are 
fairly  popular  with  those  who  patronize  them. 
Some  of  the  new  steamers  of  the  Red  Star  Line 
have  made  the  voyage  inside  of  9  days,  but  this 
rapidity  is  not  usual. 

In  1874  was  established  the  Royal  Exchange 
Shipping  Company  "  of  steamers,  better  known  as 
the  Monarch  Line,  on  account  of  the  nomenclature 
of  its  steamers.  They  are  intended  more  for 
freight  than  for  passengers  desiring  rapid  transit. 
The  passenger  accommodations  are  for  1,000  in 
the  steerage,  and  60  to  100  in  the  cabin,  and  the 
ships  have  a  capacity  of  about  4,000  tons.  The 
steamers  are  the  Assyrian,  Norman,  Danish,  Cel- 
tic, Roman,  Persian,  Egyptian,  Lydian,  and  Grecian 
Monarchs,  and  are  as  much  alike  as  the  traditional 
''peas  in  a  pod."  The  Assyrian  Monarch  has 
brought  to  America  the  largest  passenger  ever  car- 
ried on  a  transatlantic  steamer, — the  illustrious 
(and  by  children  much  lamented)  elephant  Jumbo. 

The  Wilson,  Thingvalla,  Rotterdam,  State,  and 
a  few  other  regular  and  irregular  lines  plying  be- 
tween New  York  and  ports  of  northern  Europe, 
are  devoted  more  especially  to  freight  and  steer- 


OTHER  TRANSATLANTIC  LINES. 


age  passengers,  though  all  have  first  cabins,  and 
are  suited  to  the  wants  of  travellers  with  shallow 
purses,  and  without  the  desire  of  an  all-consum- 
ing speed.  An  Italian  line  to  Gibraltar,  Mar- 
seilles, and  Genoa,  offers  opportunities  to  those 
who  wish  to  go  direct  to  the  Mediterranean,  and 
the  steamers  are  of  a  size  and  capacity  that  leave 
little  to  be  wished.  Steamship  lines  rise  and  fall, 
and  while  this  book  is  going  through  the  press  new 
ones  may  come  into  existence,  or  some  of  those 
now  on  the  list  may  close  their  business  and  re- 
tire from  the  watery  field. 

Boston  boasts  of  an  old-established  steamship 
service,  the  Warren  Line,  which  succeeded  to  the 
business  of  the  once  famous  group  of  sailing 
packets  belonging  to  Enoch  Train  &  Co.  Its 
first  vessels  were  the  Propontus,  Bosphorus,  Dela- 
ware, and  their  sisters,  followed  in  1872  and  suc- 
ceeding years  by  the  Minnesota,  Victoria,  Pales- 
tine, Canopus,  Pembroke,  Missouri,  and  Kansas. 
The  last  named  have  a  capacity  respectively  of 
4,400  and  4,500  tons,  and  are  about  425  feet  long, 
with  compound  engines  of  300-horse  power. 

The  Allen  and  Dominion  lines  are  Canadian  in- 
stitutions, the  former  dating  from  1854,  and  the 
latter  fi'om  a  much  more  recent  year.  The  Allen 
Line  grew  out  of  a  line  of  sailing  packets  very  much 
as  did  the  Cunard  and  the  Hamburg  lines.  Its 
originator,  Mr.  Hugh  Allen,  was  knighted  by  the 


424 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


queen  as  a  reward  for  his  services,  and  became  Sir 
Hugh  Allen.  He  was  born  in  Scotland,  1810, 
and  died  December  9,  [882.  At  the  time  of  his 
death,  he  was  not  only  at  the  head  of  his  steam- 
ship company,  but  was  the  president  of  one  of  the 
largest  banks  in  Canada,  and  of  twenty-two  other 
public  companies,  in  all  of  which  he  had  large  in- 
vestments. 

The  steamers  of  the  Allen  and  Dominion  lines 
run  from  Liverpool  to  Quebec  and  Montreal  in 
summer,  and  to  Halifax  in  winter  when  the  St. 
Lawrence  is  closed  by  ice.  The  transatlantic  part 
of  the  route  is  much  shorter  than  that  from  New 
York  or  Boston,  but  it  is  more  dangerous  on  account 
of  the  numerous  fogs  that  prevail  and  the  high  lati- 
tudes through  which  the  vessels  pass  in  the  season 
of  icebergs.  The  Canadian  lines  have  a  greater 
number  of  casualties  to  their  account  than  any 
others,  but  in  spite  of  these  mishaps  the  service  has 
been  profitable  and  continues  with  exemplary  regu- 
larity. 

Turn  we  now  to  the  other  side  of  the  Adantic 
and  note  the  great  steamship  lines  that  connect 
Europe  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  exclusive  of 
North  America. 

First  and  foremost  is  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental 
Steam  Navigation  Company,  familiarly  known  as  the 
P.  &  O."    But  where  does  the  name  come  from 

In  1834  the  Dublin  and  London  Steam  Packet 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  ''P.  ^  Or  COMPANY.  425 

Company  chartered  the  steamer  Royal  Tar  to 
carry  to  the  Spanish  peninsula  the  mail,  which  had 
hitherto  been  carried  by  sailing  packets  between 
Falmouth  and  Lisbon.  In  the  following  year  the 
single  steamer  grew  into  a  line  "  of  two  steamers, 
and  in  1837  ''The  Peninsular  Company  of  Steam- 
Packets  "  was  established  and  made  a  contract  to 
carry  the  mails  for  a  compensation  of  ^29,000  per 
annum.  The  Iberia,  the  pioneer  steamer  of  this  line, 
sailed  in  September,  1837,  and  she  may  be  con- 
sidered the  pioneer  of  the  vast  fleet  of  the  P.  &  O. 
Company  of  the  present  day. 

Up  to  September  1840  the  mails  to  and  from 
India  were  carried  by  steamers  monthly  between 
Bombay  and  Suez,  and  in  government  steamers  be- 
tween Alexandria  and  Gibraltar,  where  they  con- 
nected with  the  mail  service  of  the  Peninsular  Com- 
pany to  and  from  England.  In  1840  the  British 
Government  contracted  with  the  Peninsular  Company 
to  run  a  line  of  steamers  direct  between  Enorland 
and  Alexandria,  touching  at  Gibraltar  and  Malta. 
The  steamers  Oriental  (1,600  tons)  and  Great  Liver- 
pool (1,540)  were  the  pioneer  ships  of  this  service, 
and  the  new  company  was  called  The  Peninsular 
and  Oriental  Steam  Navigation  Company,"  a  name 
it  retains  to  this  day,  though  the  conditions  of  its 
service  have  greatly  changed  in  the  forty-five  years 
that  have  elapsed. 

With  the  expiration  of  each  contract  the  company 


426 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


extended  its  service  in  frequency,  speed,  and  dis- 
tance— until  now  it  resembles  Briareus  with  its  many 
arms,  its  route  covering  the  map  of  all  Asiatic 
and  Mediterranean  waters.  It  has  a  weekly  service 
from  London  to  Alexandria  over  the  original  route 
and  another  from  Venice  and  Brindisi  to  Alexandria; 
the  weekly  service  is  continued  to  Bombay,  and  there 
is  a  fortnightly  service  from  Suez  and  also  from 
Bombay  to  Ceylon.  At  Ceylon  steamers  diverge  in 
three  directions,  one  line  to  Calcutta,  another  to 
Singapore  and  Hong-Kong,  and  a  third  to  Australia. 
At  Hong-Kong  there  is  another  divergence,  one  line 
going  to  Shanghai  and  another  to  Yokohama,  the 
latter  city  being  11,247  miles  from  London  and  the 
former  10,497.  The  Australian  hne  terminates  at 
Sydney,  1 1,978  miles  from  the  starting  point. 

The  company  has  a  heavy  subsidy  from  the  gov- 
ernment for  the  transportation  of  mails  and  is  under 
severe  penalties  for  delays.  From  two  steamers  of 
1,600  tons  each,  its  fleet  has  grown  to  sixty  and 
more,  some  of  them  of  five  or  six  thousand  tons  ca- 
pacity and  capable  of  steaming  at  a  rate  such  as  the 
Oriental  and  Great  Liverpool  never  dreamed  of.  It 
gives  employment  to  nearly  1 3,000  persons,  exclusive 
of  coolies  and  other  laborers  on  shore,  and  its  posses- 
sions in  ships,  wharves,  etc.,  are  said  to  be  worth 
more  than  twenty  millions  of  dollars. 

The  P.  and  O.  works  amicably  with  another 
steamship  company  of  equal  magnitude  and  import- 


GERMAN  LINE  TO  ASIA  AND  AUSTRALIA.  427 


ance,  the  Messageries  Maritimes,  better  known  to 
English-speaking  Asiatics  as  the  French  Mail."  It 
was  created  by  the  French  Government  in  i85i,and 
was  known  as  the  Messageries  Imperiales  until  1870 
when  it  assumed  its  present  title,  in  consequence  of 
the  course  of  political  events  in  France.  It  has  lines 
through  the  Mediterranean,  lines  to  India,  China, 
Japan,  and  Australia,  and  a  line  to  South  America, 
touching  all  the  principal  ports  from  Para  to  Val- 
paraiso. On  its  Asiatic  routes  it  alternates  wMth  the 
steamers  of  the  P.  &  O.  Company,  so  that  as  each 
line  runs  its  vessels  fortnightly  the  mail  is  served 
weekly.  Its  Australian  line  diverges  from  Singapore 
instead  of  Ceylon,  and  runs  to  Brisbane,  in  Queens- 
land, which  is  not  touched  by  the  P.  &  O.  Its  fleet 
equals  that  of  the  P.  &  O.  in  numbers,  size  of  ships, 
splendor,  speed,  and  every  thing  else,  and  a  goodly 
part  of  its  first-class  passenger  business  is  from  Eng- 
lishmen who  consider  the  French  ships  superior  to 
their  own. 

While  this  chapter  is  in  preparation  word  comes 
from  Germany  that  the  government  of  that  empire 
has  made  a  contract  with  the  North  German  Lloyds 
Company  to  establish  lines  of  steamers  of  the  highest 
class  to  Japan,  China,  Australia,  and  the  Islands  of 
the  Pacific.  Germany  has  designs  upon  the  East, 
and  desires  colonies  like  those  of  her  powerful  neigh- 
bors. The  P.  &  O.  and  the  M.  M.  will  thus  have  a 
new  and  keen  competitor  in  the  trade  of  the  far 


428 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


East,  and  it  is  possible  that  other  governments  will 
not  be  idle  spectators  of  the  commercial  combat. 
Russia  has  a  subsidized  line  of  steamers — the  Rus- 
sian Company  of  Navigation  and  Commerce — with 
head-quarters  at  Odessa  and  lines  through  the  Black 
and  Mediterranean  seas,  the  latter  extending  as  far 
as  London.  Austria  has  the  Austrian  Lloyds,  with 
a  fleet  of  eighty  or  more  ships,  and  a  service  cover- 
ing the  Levant  and  the  Black  Sea,  and  extending 
beyond  Egypt  to  India  and  the  Straits.  Austria  and 
Russia  can  easily  increase  their  subsidies,  and  the 
directors  of  the  companies  would  be  only  too  happy 
to  contend  with  England  and  France  for  their  share 
of  the  Oriental  trade. 

Holland  has  a  line  from  Amsterdam  to  Batavia,  in 
Java,  touching  at  Gibraltar,  Naples,  Suez,  and  Aden. 
Italy  has  a  powerful  company,  the  Florio-Rubattino, 
which  possesses  altogether  nearly  a  hundred  steam- 
ers. It  has  its  head-quarters  at  Genoa,  and  sends  its 
vessels  all  through  the  Mediterranean,  and  also  to 
North  and  South  America  and  to  India  and  the 
Straits.  Probably  before  this  book  appears  we  may 
hear  of  an  Italian  line  to  China  and  Japan,  and 
another  to  Australia,  as  the  managers  are  enterpris- 
ing and  the  Italian  Government  is  liberal  ;  but  the 
subsidized  lines  do  not  have  things  all  their  own  way 
as  there  are  several  lines  running  through  the  Med- 
iterranean and  into  Asiatic  waters,  which  have  only 
their  earnings  to  rely  upon,  with  perhaps  some  con 


OTHER  GREAT  LINES. 


429 


cessions  for  carrying  local  mails  along  the  coasts 
they  visit. 

Of  these  companies  may  be  mentioned  the  British 
India  Steam  Navigation  Company,  which  runs  from 
London  to  Kurrachee,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Indus, 
and  thence  diverges  up  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  down  and 
around  the  coast  of  India  to  Bombay,  Colombo, 
Madras,  and  Calcutta,  then  down  the  coast  of  Bur- 
mah  and  the  Malay  peninsula  to  Rangoon  and 
Singapore.  Then  there  is  the  City  Line,  running 
fortnightly  between  Liverpool  and  Calcutta,  the 
Hall  Line,  to  Bombay,  the  Glen  Line  and  the  Castle 
Line  performing  a  nearly  similar  service,  the  latter 
extending  its  trips  to  China  and  Japan,  the  Holt 
Line,  running  regularly  betw^een  London  and  China, 
and  the  Ducal  Line,  which  runs  to  Bombay  and  Cal- 
cutta. 

Of  other  lines  having  numerous  ships  and  per- 
forming excellent  service  may  be  mentioned  the 
Orient  Line  from  London  to  New  Zealand  and 
Australia,  whose  latest  steamers  are  among  the 
best  afloat :  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation  Com- 
pany from  Liverpool  to  the  ports  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  by  the  way  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan  ;  the 
Royal  West  India  Mail  Line  ;  the  Liverpool,  Brazil 
and  River  Plate  Line  ;  the  Union  Steamship  Com- 
pany, which  divides  with  the  Castle  Line  the  service 
to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  the  east  coast  of 


430 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Africa ;  the  African  Steamship  Company  and  the 
British  and  African  Steam  Navigation  Company 
which  supply  the  west  coast  of  Africa  ;  the  Ham- 
burg South-American  Steamship  Company  to  Brazil, 
and  the  Kosmos  Steamship  Company  from  Ham- 
burg to  Valparaiso.  Other  lines  might  be  named 
but  the  list  is  becoming  tedious  and  we  will  come  to 
a  full  stop,  ere  the  reader  s  brain  becomes  an  ant-hill 
of  the  dimensions  and  names  of  ships,  and  bursts 
with  the  pulsation  of  their  engines. 

There  remains  the  Ocean  Tramp,  which  is  to  the 
organized  steamship  interest  what  the  terrestrial 
tramp  is  to  modern  civilization.  As  the  name  indi- 
cates the  marine  tramps  have  no  fixed  routes  but 
run  wherever  freights  can  be  had  and  generally 
accept  terms  far  lower  than  those  demanded  by  the 
regular  lines.  For  this  reason  they  are  not  loved  by 
the  established  companies  and  their  characters  are 
not  painted  in  glowing  colors.  Old  and  unseaworthy 
steamers  are  sent  out  as  tramps,  often  under  heavy 
insurance  ;  they  founder  at  sea,  and  are  reported 
missing,"  the  owners  recover  their  insurance  and 
the  public  speedily  forgets  all  about  them.  Too 
many  of  the  ocean  tramps  are  of  this  sort,  and  so 
great  has  become  the  evil  that  energetic  measures 
have  been  taken  in  the  British  Parliament  for  the 
protection  of  the  lives  of  seamen  who  may  perish 
victims  to  the  greed  of  owners. 

But  there  are  other  tramps  that  deserve  to  be 


OCEAN  STEAM-TONNAGE  OF  THE   WORLD,      43 1 

called  respectable  ;  they  are  large,  strong,  well- 
equipped  steamers,  and  belong  to  enterprising 
and  careful  owners  who  make  a  business  of  seeking 
freights  where  they  are  in  greatest  abundance. 
Several  of  the  companies  have  thirty  or  forty 
steamers,  each  and  many  of  them  own  from  four  to 
a  dozen.  In  spite  of  their  honesty  of  management 
they  cannot  win  the  favor  of  the  regular  organizations 
on  account  of  their  cheapening  of  freights,  and  one 
of  the  tramp  companies  has  been  derisively  desig- 
nated as  The  Forty  Thieves  "  in  disrespectable  al- 
lusion to  the  number  of  its  vessels. 

Following  is  a  table  showing  the  ocean  steam-ton- 
nage of  the  world,  including  only  ships  of  at  least 
100  tons  register.  It  is  taken  from  the  records  of 
the  Bureau  Veritas,  the  recognized  authority  of  the 
American  Shipmasters'  Association. 


TONNAGE. 


FLAGS. 

NO.  OF  STEAMERS.  GROSS. 

NET. 

British 

4,852 

6,464,362 

4,159,003 

French  . 

750,061 

498,646 

German  . 

566,697 

410,064 

American 

355 

545,1^7 

357,269 

Spanish  . 

314 

363,908 

237,500 

Dutch 

174 

214,538 

143,991 

Italian 

147 

201,070 

128,146 

Russian  . 

210 

161,110 

105,802 

Norwegian 

266 

141,452 

103,792 

Danish  . 

177 

135,344 

89,957 

Austrian 

102 

130,477 

93,043 

Swedish  . 

311 

130,180 

91,228 

Belgian  . 

60 

108,207 

73,700 

432 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


TONNAGE. 


FLAGS. 

NO.  OF  STEAMERS. 

GROSS. 

NET. 

Japanese 

I02 

94,985 

59^306 

Greek 

•J 

52,878 

43,573 

Brazilian 

82 

46,965 

30,795 

Egyptian 

^£^,662 

22,613 

Chilian  . 

22 

2^,766 

Portuguese 

23 

22,299 

14,624 

Mexican  . 

18,285 

11,621 

Argentine 

22 

14,590 

8,782 

Chinese  . 

8 

10,7  ID 

6,804 

Turkish 

14 

10,144 

6,270 

Peruvian 

6 

6,789 

4,639 

Hawaiian 

0 

2,662 

Haytian 

4,087 

2,529 

Zanzibar 

2 

2,828 

7  /  J 

Uruguay 

4 

2,396 

1,507 

Tunisian 

.       .  2 

1,762 

1,204 

Roumanian 

3 

1,666 

1,102 

Venezuela 

3 

838 

540 

Costa  Rican  . 

2 

719 

425 

Siamese  . 

2 

547 

351 

Ecuador 

I 

329 

249 

San  Domingo 

I 

167 

103 

Total 

8,394  10, 

269,504 

6,719,101 

It  will  be  observed  that  American  steamers  stand 
fourth  on  the  Hst,  and  that  Great  Britain  possesses 
more  than  one  half  of  all  the  ocean  steam-tonnage  of 
the  globe.  Statistics  of  the  river,  lake,  harbor,  and 
other  inland  steam -vessels  of  the  world  are  not  at 
hand.  The  total  number  of  steam-vessels  in  the 
United  States  at  the  last  report  accessible  to  the 
writer  was  5,401,  with  an  aggregate  measurement 


NUMBER  OF  STEAM-VESSELS  IN  THE   WORLD.  433 

of  1,465,909  tons.  Consequently,  our  ocean-going 
steam- vessels  exceeding  lOO  tons  register  are  about 
one  fifteenth  of  our  entire  number. 

At  the  same  ratio  the  whole  world  would  possess 
125,910  steam-vessels  of  all  kinds — a  numerous 
family,  indeed,  to  be  descended  from  the  Clermont 
in  less  than  eighty  years  !  But  this  estimate  is  not 
a  fair  one,  as  the  number  of  inland  steam-vessels  in 
the  United  States  is  doubtless  much  larger  than  that 
of  any  other  country,  owing  to  our  immense  network 
of  navigable  lakes  and  rivers.  Including  ocean  ves- 
sels of  all  kinds,  together  with  steamers  navigating 
lakes  and  rivers,  and  the  thousands  of  steam  ferry- 
boats, tugs,  tenders,  etc.,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  not  less 
than  fifty  thousand  steam-vessels  are  now  aflioat  in 
the  commercial  service  of  the  globe. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


The  Great  Eastern  :  her  history,  achievements,  and  failures — A  ghost-story 
— The  cable  steamers  Faraday,  Hooper,  and  Minia — The  Anthracite  and 
her  peculiarities — Winans*  cigar-ship " — Captain  Lundborg's  invention 
— The  Castalia,  Calais-Douvres,  and  Bessemer — A  steamer  "  nearly  all 
wheel  " — The  doomed  steamer  Meteor — The  Stiletto. 

A STEAMER  that  has  filled  numerous  pages  of 
history  and  emptied  the  pockets  of  numerous 
owners  is  the  Great  Eastern — a  conception  of  the 
famous  engineer,  Brunei.  His  idea  was  that  a 
steamer  could  be  built  to  carry  coal  for  a  voyage 
to  Australia  and  back,  but  to  accomplish  this  she 
must  be  very  large.  His  calculations  were  that  she 
should  be  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  thousand  tons 
measurement,  and  should  have  both  paddle-wheels 
and  screws  for  propulsion,  together  with  sails  for  use 
when  the  wind  favored. 

The  Eastern  Steam  Navigation  Company  was  or- 
ganized to  carry  out  his  scheme  wMth  a  capital  of 
^1,200,000  and  power  to  increase  to  ^2,000,000. 
The  first  plate  of  the  vessel  was  laid  at  Millwall  on 
the  Thames,  May  i,  1854.  The  ship  was  built  with 
an  inner  and  outer  skin  two  feet  ten  inches  apart, 
with  longitudinal  and  perpendicular  webs  or  plates 
at  intervals  of  six  feet,  so  that  the  space  between  the 
skins  was  divided  into  sections  six  feet  square.  If 


THE  GREAT  EASTERN, 


435 


the  outer  skin  should  be  damaged,  the  water  would 
be  stopped  by  the  inner  one  ;  if  both  were  punc- 
tured, the  water  was  to  be  kept  from  doing  serious 
damage  by  means  of  twelve  compartments,  into 
which  the  ship  was  divided  by  transverse  bulk- 
heads.   In  addition  to  these  there  were  two  longi- 


The  Great  Eastern  at  Sea. 

tudinal  bulkheads  extending  for  a  length  of  360  feet 
and  rising  from  the  bottom  of  the  ship  to  the  upper 
deck.  The  iron  plates  of  which  the  skins  were  made 
were  three-quarter  inch  in  thickness,  except  the  keel 
plates,  which  were  one  inch  thick.  The  vessel  was 
built  parallel  with  the  river,  as  it  was  intended  to 
launch  her  sidewise. 


43^ 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


About  eight  thousand  tons  of  iron  were  used  in 
the  hull,  and  the  estimated  weight  of  the  whole  ves- 
sel with  every  thing  and  everybody  on  board  was 
estimated  at  2  5,ooo  tons. 

November  3,  1 857,  an  attempt  was  made  to  launch 
the  ship,  but  after  moving  six  feet  she  stuck  on  the 
ways.  After  several  unsuccessful  attempts  to  move 
her,  she  slid  into  the  water  January  31,  i858,  and 


Plan  of  the  Great  Eastern. 


was  christened  the  Great  Eastern  by  Miss  Hope, 
daughter  of  the  chairman  of  the  company. 

Brunei  had  estimated  the  cost  of  building  and 
launching  the  ship  at  /5oo,ooo,  but  his  figures  were 
exceeded  by  ^230,000.  In  November,  i858,  the 
Eastern  Steam  Navigation  Company  was  dissolved 
and  The  Great  Ship  Company  was  organized 
with  ^330,000  capital.    The  new  company  was  to 


THE  GREAT  EASTERN, 


437 


pay  ^160,000  to  the  old  one,  spend  ^120,000  in 
fitting  and  finishing  the  ship,  and  have  ^5o,ooo  for 
working  expenses. 

The  following  details  of  her  dimensions,  capacity, 
fittings,  power,  etc.,  will  be  interesting  to  the  nauti- 
cal reader,  and  repay  a  glance  on  the  part  of  those 
who  do  not    go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships." 


SUMMARY  OF  STATISTICS  OF  THE  "  GREAT  EASTERN.' 


Length  of  upper  deck  .  .  feet,  692 
Length  between  perpendiculars,  "  680 
lireadth  across  paddle-boxes  .  ''118 
Breadth  of  hull  83 
Depth  from  deck  to  keel  .  .  ''58 
Number  of  decks  ....  4 
masts       ....  6 

Diameter  of  -  .      .  -!  ^  ^V,^J'?n^'' 

\    3  It.  6  in. 

Quantity  of  canvas  under  full  sail, 

square  yards    ....  6,500 

Number  of  anchors    ....  10 

"  boats       ....  20 

Tonnage  (old  measurement),  tons,  22,500 

Storage  for  cargo      .      .        "  6,000 

Capacity  of  coal-bunkers,  12,000 

Draught  of  water,  unladen,      15  ft.  6  in. 

"  "        laden         .      feet,  30 

Number  of  water-tight  compartments,  12 


Diameter  of  paddle-wheels 
Weight    "  .  . 

Length  of  floats 
Width       "      .      .      .  . 
Number  of  floats  to  each  wheel 
Length  of  paddle-shafts  . 
Weight "  .       .  . 

Length  of  intermediate  cranked 

shafts  

Weight  of  intermediate  cranked 

shafts  

PADDLE-ENGINES. 

Nominal  horse-power 
Number  of  cylinders 
Diameter 


feet,  56 
tons,  185 
feet,  13 
3 

30 

feet,  38 
tons,  30 

feet,  21^ 

tons,  31 


Weight 

piston  and  rod 
Length  of  stroke 
Strokes  per  minute 


including 


6  ft,  2  in. 

tons,  38 
feet,  14 
14 


PADDLE-ENGINE  BOILERS. 


Number  of  boilers 
Furnaces  to  each 
Length  of  boilers 
Width 
Height 

Weight  of  each 


10 

17  ft.  6  in. 
17  "  9 

13  "  9  ' 
tons,  50 


Weight  of  water 
Area  of  heating  surface 
Number  of  tubes 
Thickness  of  plates  . 


tons,  40 
sq.  feet,  4,800 
400 

I  and  in. 


feet,  24 
37 
4 

tons,  36 
feet,  160 


.  1 ,600 
4 

inches,  84 
feet,  4 


SCREW  PROPELLER, 

Diameter  of  screw 
Pitch  .       .  . 

Number  of  fans 
Weight  of  screw 
Length  of  propeller-shaft 

SCREW  ENGINES. 

Nominal  horse-power 
Number  of  cylinders 
Diameter  of  each  cylinder. 
Length  of  stroke      .  . 
Number  of  revolutions  per  minute,  50 

SCREW  BOILERS. 

Number  of  boilers  ....  6 
Funnels  to  each  boiler  ...  12 
Length  of  boiler  .  .  18  ft,  6  in. 
Width  .       ,       .         17 6  " 

Height  feet,  14 

Weight  of  boiler  ,  .  .  tons,  57 
*'  water  .  ,  .  "'45 
Area  of  heating  surface  .  sq.  feet,  5,000 
Number  of  tubes  ....  420 
Thickness  of  plates    .       .  and  \  in. 

Number  of  auxiliary  engines 

donkey-engines 
Total  horse-power  (about) 

PASSENGER  ACCOMMODATION. 

Number  of  passengers  (first  class),  800 
"  (second  class),  2,000 

*^  (third  class),  1,200 

Aggregate  length  of  saloons  and 

berths  feet,  350 

Number  of  saloons  ,  .  ,  .  10 
Length  of  principal  saloon  .  feet,  100 
Width  .       .  36 

Height  "       "  "    .       .  13 

Length  of  cabins  .  .  .  14 
Width  .       ,  .    7  to  8  ft. 

Height      "       ,       .       ,       .    7  ft.  4  in. 


438 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Admiral  Preble  asserts  that  Noah's  Ark  was 
smaller  than  the  Great  Eastern,  and  gives  the  follow- 
ing figures,  taking  the  cubits  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
and  Bishop  Wilkins  as  the  standard  of  measurement 
of  the  biblical  vessel  : 


NOAH  S  ARK, 

NOAH  S  ARK, 

ACCORDING  TO 

ACCORDING  TO 

GREAT 

NEWTON. 

WILKINS. 

EASTERN. 

Feet. 

Feet. 

Feet 

Length  bet.  perpendiculars,  515.62 

547 

680 

Breadth       .       .       .  89.94 

91.16 

83 

Depth          .       .       .  51.56 

54.70 

58 

Keel  or  length  for  tonnage,  464.08 

492.31 

630.02 

Tonnage  according  to  old  law  18,232 

21,762 

28,093 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  makes  the  Scripture  cubit  20 
and  -^-^-^  inches;  Bishop  Wilkins  makes  it  21  and 
-^-f^  inches.  The  reader  may  adopt  whichever 
standard  he  chooses  and  still  he  will  find  the  Great 
Eastern  larger  than  Noah's  Ark.  Not  only  was  she 
larger  than  any  previous  ship  but  she  was  the  only 
one  with  two  sets  of  paddle-engines  and  two  of 
screws. 

Compare  this  steamer  of  thirty  years  ago  with  one 
of  the  recent  triumphs  of  marine  architecture,  the 
City  of  Rome. 

CAPACITY,  TONS. 
LENGTH.      BREADTH.       DEPTH.  NET.  GROSS. 

Feet.  Feet.  Feet. 

City  of  Rome    .       586  52  37  3,453  8,144 

Great  Eastern  .       680  83  58        13, 344  18,915 

By  September,  iSSq,  the  Great  Eastern  was  ready 
for  sea,  and  left  her  moorings  at  Deptford  for  Port- 


THE  GREAT  EASTERN, 


439 


land  Roads.  On  the  way  an  explosion  occured  by 
which  ten  firemen  were  killed  and  many  persons  in- 
jured. After  repairs  were  completed  she  went  to 
Holyhead,  where  she  arrived  October  loth,  and 
afterwards  went  to  Southampton  where  she  wintered. 
Captain  Harrison,  her  commander,  was  drowned  in 


Boiler  of  the  Steamer     Great  Eastern." 

the  Solent,  in  January  i860,  and  she  was  placed  in 
command  of  Captain  Vine  Hall. 

She  made  her  first  voyage  to  New  York  in  June 
i860,  with  38  passengers  and  8  guests.  Her  best 
day's  run,  during  the  voyage,  was  333  miles,  and  the 
best  speed  attained  was  141  knots  per  hour.  She 
consumed  2,877  tons  of  coal  on  the  voyage,  which 
began  on  the  17th  and  ended  on  the  28th  of  June. 


440 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


The  ship  attracted  a  great  deal  of  attention  at  New 
York,  and  her  consignees  decided  to  send  her  on  a 
voyage  to  Cape  May  and  back,  at  the  price  of  ten 
dollars  a  ticket.  Several  hundred  passengers  em- 
braced the  opportunity,  and,  according  to  all  reports, 
were  very  glad  to  get  back  to  the  Metropolis.  There 
was  more  motion  to  the  ship  than  many  of  them  had 
expected,  and  those  who  neglected  to  carry  a  supply 
of  provisions  were  unable  to  obtain  sufficient  to  eat. 

After  being  exhibited  in  New  York,  for  an  admis- 
sion fee  of  twenty-five  cents,  the  Great  Eastern 
sailed  for  England  on  the  i6th  of  August,  and 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  ten  days.  On  reaching  her 
native  land  she  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  sheriff,  and 
was  not  released  until  the  following  spring.  She 
made  three  or  four  trips  to  New  York  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1 86 1,  suffering  severely  in  a  gale  on  the 
1 2th  of  September,  when  many  of  those  on  board 
thought  she  would  go  down.  In  1862  she  resumed 
her  transatlantic  business,  terminating  her  season  by 
running  on  a  rock  near  Long  IsJand,  and  springing  a 
serious  leak.  Repairs  took  some  time  and  she  did 
not  return  to  Liverpool  until  January,  1  863. 

She  ran  to  New  York  a  few  times  in  the  following 
summer.  In  1864  she  was  bought  by  Glass,  Elliott 
&  Co.,  and  chartered  to  lay  the  Atlantic  telegraph 
cable.  Alterations  required  much  time  and  expense, 
and  in  July,  i865,  the  Great  Eastern  steamed  away 
with  the  cable  on  board  and  safely  carried  it  to  the 


THE  GREAT  EASTERN. 


441 


American  shore.  Landing  the  end  of  the  cable  she 
started  for  Ireland.  The  cable  broke  in  mid-ocean 
and  after  vainly  trying  to  grapple  it  the  Great  East- 
ern returned  to  England. 

In  the  following  year  she  took  out  a  new  cable 
which  was  successfully  laid  ;  then  she  went  back  to 
where  the  previous  year's  cable  was  broken  and 
after  much  effort  brought  up  the  end,  spliced  it  to 
what  she  had  left  on  board  and  started  for  Ireland, 
where  she  arrived  safely.  It  seemed  as  though  the 
Great  Eastern  had  found  her  mission  at  last. 

In  1867  she  was  fitted  up  by  a  French  company 
for  conveying  passengers  from  America  to  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  that  year.  She  was  prepared  for  two 
thousand  on  her  first  voyage  but  only  191  offered. 
Several  sailors  w^ere  killed  or  wounded  by  an  accident 
to  one  of  her  capstans,  and  after  the  voyage  the  ship 
again  went  into  the  courts  through  a  suit  of  her  crew 
for  their  wages. 

After  that  adventure  the  Great  Eastern  laid  four 
or  five  cables  across  the  Atlantic,  and  also  the  cable 
from  Bombay  to  Suez.  A  few  attempts  were  made 
to  utilize  her  for  carrying  freight  and  passengers  but 
none  were  successful,  and  the  British  Government 
several  times  refused  to  purchase  her  for  a  transport. 
Most  of  the  time  she  has  lain  idle  in  English  harbors, 
obtainino[-  a  small  revenue  through  the  fees  collected 
from  visitors,  but  never  has  she  paid  a  dividend  to 
her  stockholders.    The  original  builders  sunk  all 


442 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


their  capital  and  so  did  the  stockholders  of  the  Great 
Ship  Company  ;  those  who  chartered  her  for  laying 
the  cables  may  have  obtained  some  remuneration, 
but,  it  is  safe  to  say,  their  enterprise  never  returned 
them  a  fortune. 

In  1881  the  Great  Eastern  was  offered  at  auction, 
but  withdrawn  when  it  was  found  that  she  would 
bring  no  more  than  ^30,000.  In  October,  i885, 
she  was  again  offered  and  sold  for  ^26,200.  It  was 
the  intention  of  the  purchasers  to  load  her  with  coal, 
send  her  to  Gibraltar,  and  keep  her  there  as  a  coal 
hulk,  a  use  for  which  she  is  admirably  fitted. 

"  Imperial  Caesar,  dead  and  turned  to  clay, 
Might  stop  a  hole  to  keep  the  wind  away." 

The  total  cost  of  the  Great  Eastern,  including 
hull,  engines,  fittings,  furniture,  etc.,  was  $4,703,575. 

From  the  time  she  stuck  on  the  ways  during  the 
launch  she  seems  to  have  been  unfortunate,  but 
happily  her  misfortunes,  while  serious  for  stockhold- 
ers, captain,  and  crew,  did  not  extend  to  her  passen- 
gers. She  was  in  advance  of  the  needs  of  com- 
merce, as  there  was  not  a  sufficient  movement  of 
passengers  and  freight  at  any  one  time  to  ensure 
her  a  cargo  of  the  latter  and  a  complement  of  the 
former.  Now  the  needs  of  commerce  have  changed, 
but  the  compound  engine,  unknown  in  her  time,  and 
the  vastly  superior  models  of  the  present  day,  ren- 
der the  Great  Eastern  as  useless  for  ocean  naviga- 


THE  CABLE  STEAMERS. 


443 


tion  as  would  be  the  ark  of  Noah,  to  which  she  has 
been  compared. 

There  is  a  tradition  handed  down  among  all  the 
sailors  that  have  formed  the  crews  of  the  Great 
Eastern  that  her  ill  luck  is  due  to  an  accident  which 
occurred  while  she  was  in  process  of  building.  The 
story  goes,  that  on  one  occasion  two  of  the  workmen 
became  intoxicated  and  crept  into  one  of  the  incom- 
pleted spaces  betw^een  the  two  skins  of  the  ship. 
While  they  were  sleeping  off  the  effects  of  their 
carouse  the  plate  to  complete  the  inclosure  of  the 
space  was  put  into  position  and  riveted  down  and 
the  absence  of  the  men  was  not  noticed  or  ac- 
counted for  for  several  days.  The  ghosts  of  these 
victims  of  their  own  drunken  carelessness  are  said 
to  haunt  the  ship,  and  their  fellow  workmen  pre- 
dicted that  whenever  the  Great  Eastern  should  be 
broken  up  two  skeletons  would  be  found  in  one  of 
the  inclosures  of  that  enormous  cellular  tissue, 
where  they  have  lain  and  been  transported  wherever 
the  vessel  has  gone. 

As  a  layer  of  ocean  cables  the  Great  Eastern  was 
superseded  by  the  Faraday,  which  was  built  in  1873 
expressly  for  that  purpose.  She  is  366  feet  long,  52 
feet  beam,  36  feet  deep,  and  measures  5, 000  tons 
gross.  She  can  carry  6,000  tons  dead  weight  of 
cable  which  is  contained  in  three  iron  tanks  occupying 
a  large  part  of  the  interior  of  the  vessel.  Like  the 
Great  Eastern  the  Faraday  has  a  double  bottom, 


444 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


partly  to  give  additional  strength  and  support  the 
tanks,  and  partly  in  order  that  the  space  between  the 
skins  may  be  utilized  for  taking  in  water  ballast  as 
the  cable  is  paid  out.  Bow  and  stern  are  built  alike, 
and  there  is  a  rudder  at  each  end  of  the  ship.  She 
has  two  engines  each  working  a  screw  independent 
of  the  other,  and  by  means  of  the  rudders  and 
screws  the  ship  is  enabled  to  turn  as  if  on  a  pivot,  a 
great  advantage  in  her  especial  work. 

The  Hooper  is  a  cable  steamer  similar  to  the  Fara- 
day, and  there  is  a  smaller  one  called  the  Minia  which 
is  constantly  kept  in  Halifax  or  St.  John's.  The  Minia 
is  about  3,000  tons  burthen  and  her  work  consists  in 
keeping  the  cables  in  repair.  She  carries  about 
600  miles  of  cable  constantly  in  her  tanks  and  is 
fitted  with  all  the  apparatus  necessary  for  picking 
up,  undermining,  or  splicing  a  damaged  cable.  The 
several  transatlantic  cables  keep  her  well  occupied. 

The  smallest  steamer  that  ever  crossed  the  Atlan- 
tic is,  or  was,  the  Anthracite,  with  a  gross  measure- 
ment of  70  tons,  and  a  registered  measurement  of 
28  tons.  She  was  84  feet  long,  and  of  this  length 
22^  feet  were  occupied  with  engines,  furnaces,  boilers, 
and  coal-bunkers.  She  was  the  invention  of  Mr. 
Loftus  Perkins  and  was  built  in  England  to  demon- 
strate the  advantages  of  steam  at  an  enormously 
high  pressure.  The  boilers  of  the  Anthracite  are 
of  horizontal  tubes  welded  up  at  each  end  and  con- 
nected by  a  vertical  tube,  and  were  tested  to  a 


THE  ANTHRACITE  AND  HER  PECULIARITIES.  445 


pressure  of  2,5oo  pounds  to  the  square  inch.  On 
her  transatlantic  voyage  (in  1880)  the  Anthracite 
steamed  3,316  miles  in  22\  days  ;  she  did  the  entire 
distance  with  25  tons  of  coal,  steaming-  1,353  miles 
with  only  nine  tons.  Most  of  the  time  she  used 
only  one  ton  per  day. 

Mr.  Perkins  thus  describes  his  invention,  which 
he  illustrated  in  the  Anthracite  : — 

An  anti-friction  alloy  is  used  so  that  no  lubrication  is 
required.  Cylinders  with  piston-rings  of  this  material 
have  been  in  use  for  several  years  without  showing  signs 
of  wear ;  the  only  wear  being  on  the  rings,  which  are 
easily  replaced.  Not  only  is  the  cost  of  oil  or  greese 
saved,  but  the  destructive  action  on  the  machinery  and 
boilers  of  the  acids  generated  from  lubricants  is  avoided. 

For  the  use  of  steam  at  these  high  pressures  three 
different  sized  cylinders  are  employed,  all  jacketed  with 
spiral  tubes  cast  in  the  metal,  which  are  supplied  with 
steam  direct  from  the  boilers,  and  keep  up  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  cylinder.  The  cylinders  are  arranged  one 
above  the  other,  and  their  pistons  are  connected  to  a 
common  piston-rod.    The  operation  is  as  follows  : 

The  high-pressure  steam  is  introduced  into  the  upper 
end  of  the  first  cylinder  where  there  is  no  gland,  and 
where  the  piston  is  formed  so  as  to  require  no  lubricating 
material.  The  steam  is  cut  off  at  half-stroke  in  this  cyl- 
inder, and  when  admitted  for  the.  return  stroke  into  the 
bottom  of  the  second  cylinder,  of  four  times  the  area. 
The  temperature  is  so  much  reduced  as  to  cause  no  diffi- 
culty when  brought  into  contact  with  the  piston-rod 
gland.  From  the  bottom  of  the  second  cylinder  the 
steam  expands  into  the  top  of  the  same  cylinder,  which 


446 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


is  of  larger  capacity  than  the  bottom,  and  serves  as  a 
chamber,  and  is  in  direct  communication  with  the  valve- 
box  of  the  third  cylinder.  This  last  is  double-acting  and 
is  arranged  to  cut  off  at  about  a  quarter-stroke,  and  at  the 
termination  of  the  stroke  exhausts  into  the  condenser, 
with  an  expansion  of  about  32  times." 

In  1866  Ross  Winans,  an  American  v^ho  had  ac- 
quired fame  and  fortune  in  connection  with  railway 
enterprises  in  Russia,  built  in  England  a  steam  ves- 
sel of  peculiar  model  which  was  generally  known  as 
the  ''cigar  ship."  It  was  pointed  at  both  ends  and 
was  intended  to  throuo-h  the  waves  rather  than 
over  them.  The  inventor  claimed  that  on  this  model 
a  vessel  of  large  capacity,  suitable  for  traversing  the 
Atlantic,  could  cross  from  Liverpool  to  New  York  in 
five  days.  A  high  speed  was  attained  on  the  trial 
trip  and  a  larger  steamer  was  built,  but  she  never  at- 
tempted to  traverse  the  broad  ocean. 

The  same  idea  had  been  developed  by  Joseph  W. 
Morse,  of  Brooklyn,  and  by  Captain  Perry  Bliven, 
the  inventor  of  the  dome  steam-yacht  Meteor.  The 
latter  is  i58  feet  over  all  ;  136  feet  at  water-line  ; 
and  129  feet  on  the  keel;  21  feet  beam;  17  feet 
deep,  and  measuring  5i2  tons  ;  she  draws  6  feet  for- 
ward and  1 1  feet  aft.  The  sides  are  continued  up- 
wards and  over  so  as  to  form  a  dome,  whence  the 
name  of  the  peculiar  model.  The  boat  is  intended 
to  be  much  deeper  aft  than  forward,  and  the  invent- 
or's idea  is  that  the  waves  will  break  over  the  bow 


CAPTAIN  LUNDBORG' S  INVENTION. 


447 


and  sloping  sides  and  readily  flow  off  instead  of 
weighing  down  the  deck  as  in  ordinary  ships. 

Ocean  steamers  on  this  model  are  designed  to  be 
from  400  to  5oo  feet  long,  to  have  no  masts  or 
houses  or  other  constructions  on  deck  except  the 
pilot-house,  ventilators,  and  smoke-stack,  and  to 
carry  passengers  on  the  spar-deck  only.  There  is 
a  railed  space  on  deck  where  passengers  may  prom- 
enade in  fine  weather,  but  ^vhen  there  is  any  kind  of 
a  sea  on  they  are  expected  to  stay  below.  The  in- 
terior is  to  be  constantly  ventilated  by  steam  fans. 
A  speed  of  28  to  30  miles  an  hour  is  claimed  for  the 
ocean  steamer  constructed  on  this  system,  and  as  a 
precaution  against  accidents  each  vessel  is  to  be 
provided  with  a  double  set  of  engines. 

Captain  Lundborg  has  designed  and  patented  a 
twin  screw  steamship  on  a  principle  for  which  he 
claims  greatly  superior  speed.  His  idea  is  to 
divide  the  water  horizontally  instead  of  vertically, 
and,  to  attain  this  division,  the  hull  is  made  nar- 
rower at  the  water-line  than  it  is  below.  A  vertical 
section  of  his  ship  suggests  a  vertical  section 
through  a  common  hour-glass,  flattened  at  the 
ends.  The  bottom  of  the  vessel  is  flat  and  wider 
in  proportion  than  the  bottom  of  the  ordinary 
steamer  ;  for  a  steamer  \So  feet  long  he  proposes 
two  propellers,  16  feet  diameter  and  28  feet  pitch, 
moved  by  four  compound  engines — two  on  each 
shaft — making  90  revolutions  a  minute.  Captain 


448 


ROBERT  FULTOIV. 


Lundborg  is  confident  that  such  a  steamer  can 
make  22  or  23  miles  an  hour,  carrying  600  first- 
class  passengers,  1,000  second- and  third-class,  3,000 
tons  of  cargo,  and  2,700  tons  of  coal,  on  a  draft  of 
23  feet. 

To  mitigate  the  horrors  of  sea-sickness  in  the 
transit  of  the  channel  between  England  and  France, 
several  devices  have  been  brought  forward.  The 
most  successful  have  been  the  double-hull  steamers, 
Castalia  and  Calais-Douvres,  the  former  being  the 
first  one  tried.  She  is  290  feet  long,  and  may  be  brief- 
ly described  as  the  two  halves  of  a  hull  split  longitudi- 
nally and  held  firmly  apart  a  distance  of  26  feet.  The 
paddle-wheels  work  in  the  space  between  the  hulls, 
and  all  the  space  not  occupied  by  the  paddle-boxes 
and  engines  is  floored  over,  so  that  we  have  a  deck 
60  feet  wide.  The  Calais-Douvres  is  on  the  general 
plan  of  the  Castalia,  but  larger,  and  with  some  im- 
provements. Both  vessels  were  successful  in  reduc- 
ing sea-sickness  to  a  minimum,  but  their  speed  was 
not  equal  to  that  of  the  ordinary  channel  boats. 

Another  novel  craft  for  the  channel  transit  was 
the  Bessemer,  the  production  of  the  inventor  of 
that  name,  and  provided  with  a  swinging  saloon, 
something  on  the  plan  of  the  Huston  self-levelling 
berth.  She  was  3 50  feet  long  at  the  water-line,  had 
four  paddle-wheels — a  pair  at  each  end — and  her 
engines  were  calculated  to  be  capable  of  driving 
her  from  eighteen  to  twenty  miles  an  hour.   In  the 


450  ROBERT  FULTON. 

centre  of  this  craft  was  a  swinging  saloon,  70  feet 
long,  35  feet  wide,  and  20  feet  high.  It  hung  on 
four  bearings,  one  at  each  end  and  one  at  each 
side,  in  the  centre.  The  motion  of  the  saloon  was 
controlled  by  machinery,  specially  invented  by  Mr. 


Oscillating  Cabin,  Steamer  Bessemer. 

Bessemer,  and  it  was  intended  to  keep  the  saloon 
on  a  level,  no  matter  what  might  be  the  move- 
ments of  the  rest  of  the  ship.  But  it  was  found  in 
practice  that  the  saloon  did  not  answer  quickly 


A  STEAMER  ''NEARLY  ALL    WHEELS  45 1 


jnough  to  the  machinery,  and  the  motion,  though 
reduced,  was  painfully  perceptible  to  those  with 
easily  disturbed  stomachs. 

A  novel  steamboat,  which  may  be  described  as 
''nearly  all  wheel,"  has  been  built  by  Emil  Adam, 
of  Prague,  Austria,  and  is  said  to  have  developed 
astonishing  speed.  The  hull  is  made  of  two  hollow 
cylinders  of  thin  metal,  tapering  to  the  ends,  and 
having  the  general  shape  of  double-pointed  cigars. 
On  the  outer  surface  of  each  cylinder  is  a  screw 
thread  formed  of  metal  plates  riveted  to  the  cylin- 
der ;  the  inclination  of  the  thread  is  about  forty-five 
degrees  to  the  axis  of  the  cylinder,  and  the  rotation 
of  the  cylinder  by  a  steam-engine  on  the  hull  above 
causes  the  thread  of  the  screw  to  advance  in  water 
as  an  ordinary  screw  advances  in  a  nut. 

The  deck,  where  engines,  coal,  stores,  pas- 
sengers, and  crew  are  placed,  is  supported  upon 
uprights,  extending  from  the  ends  of  the  cylinders, 
and  also  from  breaks  or  recesses  at  different  points 
along  their  length.  At  least  two  cylinders  are 
necessary,  but  the  number  may  be  increased  to 
three  or  more.  It  is  intended  that  only  the  cylin- 
ders and  the  rudder  shall  be  submerged,  so  that  the 
resistance  will  be  very  slight. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  fastest  steam  vessel  afloat  in 
America,  if  not  in  the  whole  world,  is  the  yacht 
Stiletto,  launched  in  April,  1884.  On  the  loth  of 
the  following  June  she  attracted  attention  by  beat- 


452 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


ing  the  famous  river  boat  Mary  Powell.  In  a  race 
of  thirty  miles  the  Stiletto  came  out  two  miles  ahead, 
making  the  entire  distance  in  one  hour  and  fifteen 
minutes.  The  owners  of  the  Powell  claim  that  their 
boat  was  not  doing  its  best  on  that  day,  and  a  simi- 
lar claim  is  made  for  the  Stiletto  by  her  owners. 

The  Stiletto  was  built  by  the  Herreshoff  Manu- 
facturing Company,  of  Bristol,  of  which  John  B. 
Herreshoff  is  president,  and  N.  G.  Herreshoff  super- 
intendent and  designer.  John  B.  Herreshoff  says 
that  the  hull  of  the  Stiletto  is  the  product  of  a  series 
of  experiments  made  with  models  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  was  followed  by  Froude,  the  English  ship- 
builder, and  of  the  improvements  suggested  by  tests 
of  the  numerous  steamers  previously  built  by  the 
Herreshoff  Company.  Her  length  over  all  is  94 
feet ;  beam,  1 1  feet ;  depth  of  hold  in  the  centre,  7f 
feet.  Below  the  water  line  both  ends  of  the  craft  are 
very  nearly  alike,  being  modelled  so  as  to  present 
the  smallest  possible  surface  exposed  to  the  water 
with  a  given  flotation,  as  in  the  attainment  of  very 
high  speed  skin  "  or  water  surface  friction  is  the 
factor  of  major  resistance.  The  lines  of  the  bows 
are  very  nearly  straight,  and  the  bottom  is  made  in 
round  sections. 

Power  is  furnished  by  a  compound  condensing  en- 
gine of  12  inch  stroke  and  cylinders  12  and  21  inches 
in  diameter  ;  the  engine  is  supplied  by  a  sectional 
water-tube   boiler  in  which  steam  can  be  got  up 


THE  STILETTO.  453 

quickly,  and  which  is  calculated  at  45o-horse  power. 
Although  this  boiler  is  similar  in  principle  and  opera- 
tion to  those  of  the  regular  Herreshoff  type,  it  varies 
greatly  in  construction,  the  tubes  being  arranged 
horizontally  in  sets  immediately  over  the  fire — each 
set  being  at  right  angles  to  those  just  above  it. 
Exhaust  steam  is  led  to  a  surface  condenser.  An 
ordinary  pump  takes  the  water  from  the  condenser, 
forces  it  into  the  upper  set  of  boiler  tubes,  through 
the  boiler  to  a  separator  located  in  front  of  the  boiler, 
and  to  which  the  steam  pipe  is  connected.  The 
boiler  will  work  safely  with  i6o  pounds  of  steam, 
but  in  the  race  with  the  Mary  Powell  it  was  only 
found  necessary  to  use  from  120  to  I25  pounds. 
The  fire  box  is  6\  feet  square. 

The  screw  is  four-bladed,  4  feet  in  diameter,  and 
6\  feet  pitch.  At  the  stern  the  boat  draws  4^  feet 
and  at  the  bow  3  feet. 

The  engine  is  designed  to  produce  the  greatest 
amount  of  power  with  the  least  possible  vibration. 
It  is  an  annular  valve  inverted  compound  engine. 
It  has  two  cylinders,  one  of  12  inches,  the  other  of 
21  inches  diameter,  with  12  inches  stroke  of  piston. 
With  the  maximum  steam  pressure  of  i5o  pounds  it 
will  make  460  revolutions  per  minute.  The  essential 
feature  of  the  engine  is  in  the  construction  of  the 
cylinder,  which  consists  of  one  cylinder  within  the 
other,  with  an  annular  space  between  in  which  the 
valve  works.    The  steam  ports,  or  openings  through 


454 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


which  the  steam  enters  the  inner  cylinder,  are  ranged 
all  around  it  at  the  top  and  bottom,  so  that  the  steam 
pressure  is  exerted  on  the  piston-head  from  all  sides 
at  once,  and  not,  as  in  the  engines  in  use  now,  from 
only  one  side. 

The  builder  of  the  Stiletto  claims  that  his  boat  is 
capable  of  running  twenty-seven  miles  an  hour.  He 
also  claims  that  an  ocean  steamer  of  large  size,  con- 
structed on  the  same  principles,  would  have  much 
greater  speed  than  the  present  ''greyhounds  of  the 
Atlantic,"  and  an  equal,  if  not  greater,  carrying  ca- 
pacity. 

The  question  of  using  petroleum  for  fuel  in  place 
of  coal  has  been  mooted  for  several  years,  and  ex- 
periments have  been  made  with  it  on  a  small  scale. 
It  is  in  use  in  steam  launches  and  small  boats  for  in- 
land navigation,  but  has  not  been  hazarded  upon  any 
of  the  transatlantic  or  other  large  ships.  The  United 
States  Government  made  elaborate  experiments  with 
petroleum  upon  the  steamer  Palos  (360  tons)  cover- 
ing a  period  of  several  months.  The  conclusion  was 
reached  that  convenience,  health,  comfort,  and  safety 
were  against  the  use  of  petroleum  as  fuel  for  steam 
vessels,  and  the  only  advantage  shown  was  a  not 
very  important  reduction  in  the  bulk  and  weight  of 
the  fuel  carried.  Until  popular  prejudice  can  be 
changed,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  passenger  traffic 
on  a  steamer  using  petroleum  for  fuel  would  be  in- 
ordinately large. 


PETROLEUM  AS  FUEL  FOR  STEAMERS. 


455 


In  recent  years  petroleum  has  been  exclusively 
used  as  fuel  for  steamers  on  the  Caspian  Sea  and 
for  steamboats  on  the  Volga.  It  has  taken  the  place 
of  coal  and  wood  on  the  trans-Caspian  and  trans- 
Caucasian  railways,  and  also  on  the  other  railways 
of  the  Russian  empire.  Coal  and  wood  are  scarce 
and  dear  in  Southern  Russia,  while  the  petroleum 
of  the  Baku  oil  fields  is  very  cheap  ;  consequently, 
the  advantages  of  liquid  fuel  in  that  region  are  more 
apparent  than  they  would  be  in  the  United  States. 

One  writer  on  this  subject  says  that  with  crude 
oil  at  75  cents  a  barrel  and  coal  at  $3  a  ton,  their 
steam-producing  values  would  be  identical.  A  pound 
of  petroleum  will  evaporate  two  thirds  more  water 
than  a  pound  of  anthracite.  If  the  oil  is  carried  in 
tanks  and  coal  in  bunkers,  there  would  be  a  reduc- 
tion of  39  per  cent,  in  the  space  required  for  stow- 
age of  fuel. 

The  same  writer  illustrates  the  advantages  of  pe- 
troleum by  referring  to  the  Etruria,  the  latest  of  the 
Cunarders.  It  burns,"  he  says, on  a  passage  of  six 
days  and  a  half  2,275  tons  of  coal,  but  to  be  prepared 
for  delays,  it  carries  3,000,  leaving  only  400  tons  for 
freight.  If  39  per  cent,  of  space  could  be  economized 
on  such  a  vessel  as  this,  it  would  give  space  for 
1,170  tons  more  cargo  of  the  same  gravity  as  coal." 

The  oil-burning  steamers  on  the  Caspian  Sea  have 
an  apparatus  which  is  managed  by  one  attendant. 
The  same  steam-producing  ability  with  coal  and 


456 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


fuel  would  require  ten  firemen,  so  that  for  the 
watches  on  and  off  two  men  take  the  place  of 
twenty.  A  small  stream  of  oil  falls  upon  a  jet  of 
steam  —  the  oil  and  steam  combined  produce  a 
combustible  spray  of  intense  heating  power. 

On  nearly  all  large  steamships  the  steering  is  now 
performed  by  steam  power  in  place  of  the  old  hand 
method.  A  single  wheel  about  two  feet  in  diameter 
and  moved  by  a  touch  of  the  finger  takes  the  place 
of  the  old-fashioned  apparatus,  where  ofttimes  in  a 
gale  as  many  as  four,  and  even  eight,  men  exerted  all 
their  strength  to  keep  the  ship  to  her  course.  A 
movement  of  the  little  w^heel  in  either  direction  sets 
the  machinery  in  action  ;  the  rudder  is  turned  to 
right  or  left  at  the  will  of  the  helmsman,  and  more 
quickly  than  by  the  old  method. 

Progress  never  ceases.  A  recent  invention  pro- 
vides for  steering  a  ship  by  means  of  electricity  and 
compressed  air,  and  the  apparatus  is  so  arranged  that 
it  is  operated  by  the  mariner's  compass.  Two  platinum 
points  are  fixed  in  the  bottom  of  the  compass  card 
in  such  a  way  that  a  movement  of  the  card  beyond  a 
certain  distance  causes  the  points  to  dip  in  little  cups 
of  mercury  and  complete  the  electric  circuit.  The 
closing  of  the  circuit  actuates  the  machinery  and  the 
rudder  is  turned  accordingly.  The  compass  can  be 
set  for  any  desired  direction  and  the  helmsman  may 
go  to  sleep  at  his  post  without  any  fear  that  the 
ship  will  leave  her  course. 


A  JVEPV  STEERING  APPARATUS. 


457 


Whether  this  new  system  will  meet  with  general 
favor  is  extremely  doubtful.  Sea-captains  are  pro- 
verbial for  an  unwillingness  to  allow  their  men  to 
grow  rusty  in  the  joints,  and  they  look  with  disfavor 
upon  all  appliances  designed  to  remove  responsibil- 
ity from  their  subordinates.  Steering  by  means  of 
the  compass  will  not  be  likely  to  do  away  with  the 
present  gear  operated  by  steam,  or  even  with  the 
old-fashioned  wheel,  where  the  men  stand  up  to 
their  work. 


Steam  Pleabure-Boat. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


First  Steam  Vessels  of  War  in  England,  France  and  other  countries — Revo- 
lution in  Naval  Architecture — The  First  Iron-Clad — Battle  Between 
Monitor  and  Merrimac — ^Turreted  War-Ships — Present  Thickness  of 
Plating  on  Armored  Ships — Strength  of  the  Navies  of  the  World — Tor- 
pedoes and  Torpedo  Boats — Different  Systems  in  use — The  Battle  on 
the  Min  River — the  Nordenfeldt,  Goubet,  Tuck,  and  other  systems — 
Present  Work  of  the  Great  Naval  Powers. 

WE  have  seen  elsewhere  how  Robert  Fulton 
designed  and  built  the  first  war  steamer 
the  world  ever  saw,  and  have  also  read  of  the  ex- 
periments in  the  British  navy  with  steam  as  a  means 
of  propulsion.  As  we  look  back  to  1820,  when  the 
Comet,  Lightning,  and  Meteor  gun-boats  were 
ordered  for  the  British  navy,  in  spite  of  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  surveyors  in  office,  it  seems  strange  that 
it  was  not  readily  foreseen  that  steam  would  shortly 
become  the  only  motive  power  for  ships  of  war.  Yet 
so  slow  were  the  British  naval  authorities  to  act  that 
in  1831,  according  to  a  writer  in  the  United  Service 
yoitr7ial,  there  was  not  one  steam  man-of-war  in  the 
Royal  navy,  and  the  construction  of  engines  had  not 
even  commenced  in  the  Royal  dock-yards. 

In  1828  the  French  admiralty  ordered  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  steam  dock-yard,  and  in  1830  France 
had  nine  armed  steamships  afloat  and  nine  more 


FIRST  STEAM  VESSELS  OF  WAR. 


459 


under  construction.  In  1822-25  the  United  States 
navy  contained  the  steam  galliot  Sea-Gull,  which 
was  used  for  the  suppression  of  piracy  in  the  West 
Indies  ;  afterwards  she  was  employed  at  Philadel- 
phia as  a  receiving  ship,  and  was  sold  out  of  the 
service  in  1840. 

The  Fulton  Second  was  launched  in  1837,  and 
was  the  second  steam  war  vessel  built  by  the  United 
States  ;  She  may  be  regarded  as  the  pioneer  of  our 
present  steam  navy,  as  she  was  intended  for  sea 
cruising,  while  Fulton  the  First  was  a  floating  battery 
for  harbor  defence  rather  than  for  aggression.  The 
Fulton  Second  was  propelled  by  paddle-wheels,  and 
made,  in  smooth  water,  nearly  fifteen  miles  an  hour. 
Afterwards  she  was  lengthened  and  equipped  with 
new  boilers  and  engines,  and  sent  to  cruise  in  South- 
ern waters  under  the  name  of  Fulton  Third.  She 
was  laid  up  in  ordinary  at  Pensacola  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War,  and  was  destroyed  by  the  rebels. 

Russia,  Germany,  Italy,  Austria,  and  other  nations 
having  or  seeking  a  place  among  maritime  powers, 
were  not  slow  to  adopt  steam  as  a  motive  force.  But 
it  is  curious  to  observe  that  all  were  reluctant  to 
abandon  the  old  form  of  sailing  craft,  and  none  more 
so  than  England,  whose  naval  triumphs  had  been 
won  by  Drake,  Rodney,  Nelson,  and  a  host  of  other 
famous  captains,  before  the  present  uses  of  steam 
were  thought  of. 

To  follow  the  history  of  naval  architecture  with 


460 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


the  great  maritime  nations  would  occupy  far  more 
space  than  we  have  at  our  disposal,  and  also  run  the 
risk  of  being  tedious  to  the  general  reader.  Volumes 
have  been  filled  with  the  story  of  the  development 
of  the  ship  of  war — from  the  great  three-  and 
four-deck  frigates  of  the  last  century,  often  with 
an  armament  of  more  than  a  hundred  guns,  and 
with  sides  high  above  the  water,  justifying  the  name 
of  wooden  walls,"  to  the  modern  turret-ship, 
barely  visible  above  the  surface  and  having  an 
armament  of  only  a  very  few  guns. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  chief,  if  not  the  only, 
cause  of  this  development  has  been  the  introduction 
of  steam  as  a  marine  motive  power.  Nelson's  flag- 
ship at  Trafalgar,  the  Victory,  100  guns,  would  be 
no  match  for  any  one  of  a  dozen  ships  that  might 
be  chosen  from  the  British  Navy,  with  powerful 
engines,  ramming  prows,  steam-manoeuvred  turrets, 
and  the  other  appliances  that  steam  has  made  possi- 
ble, but  without  a  twentieth  of  the  number  of  guns 
carried  by  the  Victory.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
the  French,  Austrian,  German,  Russian,  Italian,  and 
other  navies  ;  possibly  we  may  include  our  own  in 
the  list,  thoucrh  we  do  so  with  much  hesitation. 
Naval  architecture  in  the  United  States  has  made 
very  little  progress  for  more  than  a  decade,  nor  is  it 
likely  to  show  much  advance  until  public  attention  is 
aroused  to  a  knowledcre  of  our  defenceless  condition. 

Down  nearly  to  i860  all  nations  had  relied  upon 


THE  FIRST  IRON-CLADS. 


461 


wooden  ships  for  their  navies  ;  a  few  iron  ships  had 
been  constructed,  but  the  models  had  not  materially 
changed  from  those  of  half  a  century  earlier.  There 
was  a  tendency  to  reduce  the  number  of  decks  and 
it  was  evident  that  the  great  four-deckers  of  former 
times  were  to  be  set  aside  for  ships  more  easy  of 
manoeuvring.  The  paddle  had  made  way  for  the 
screw  as  a  means  of  propulsion.  With  paddle  en- 
gines a  portion  of  the  machinery  was  exposed  to  an 
enemy's  shot,  while  with  a  screw  steamer  every 
thing  was  below  the  water  level  ;  besides,  the  screw 
left  the  whole  broadside  free  for  fighting  or  other 
purposes,  which  before  was  considerably  encroached 
upon  by  the  paddle-boxes.  The  general  shape  of 
the  ship  was  the  same  as  of  old  and  for  cruising  pur- 
poses most  war  ships  made  use  of  their  sails  far 
more  than  of  steam. 

The  idea  of  protecting  the  sides  of  vessels  with 
armor  of  some  kind  is  very  old,  dating  almost  as  far 
back  as  the  invention  of  gunpowder.  Indeed,  some 
of  the  Roman  galleys  and  other  vessels  before  gun- 
powder was  thought  of  had  their  sides  protected  with 
leather,  cordage,  wooden  beams,  heavy  planking,  or 
with  plates  of  iron,  brass,  or  other  metals.  Floating 
batteries  with  armored  sides  were  used  in  the  siege 
of  Gibraltar  in  1782,  and  other  batteries  were  con- 
structed at  different  epochs.  We  have  given  else- 
where an  account  of  the  Stevens'  battery,  which 
seems  to  have  been  the  first  vessel  of  the  armored 


462 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


class  after  the  one  planned  by  Fulton.  The  English 
Government  made  several  experiments  with  armor 
plating,  but  the  conclusions  were  unfavorable  to  its 
adoption. 

To  France  belongs  the  credit  of  the  first  iron- 
plated  steam  frigate  of  the  first  class.  In  the 
Crimean  War  she  constructed  and  used  four  small 
gunboats  with  armor  plating  ;  in  March,  i858,  work 
was  begun  on  La  Gloire,  a  sea-going  frigate  carrying 
thirty-six  guns,  and  protected  amidships  with  plates 
of  iron  four  and  a  half  inches  thick,  with  a  backing 
of  two  feet  of  solid  timber.  La  Gloire  was  the  pre- 
cursor of  the  iron-clad  fleet  of  France,  and  virtually 
of  the  iron-clad  fleets  of  all  nations  of  the  globe. 
Shortly  after  she  was  begun  the  French  laid  the 
keels  of  the  Normandie  and  the  Invincible  on  the 
same  plans.  England  could  not  afford  to  lie  idle 
under  these  circumstances  ;  her  naval  authorities 
ordered  the  building  of  the  Warrior  and  shortly 
afterwards  of  the  Black  Prince,  Defence,  and  Queen. 

In  i860  Austria  began  the  construction  of  two 
iron-clad  steam  frigates,  and  at  the  same  time  Italy 
began  work  on  two  iron-clad  steam  corvettes.  Rus- 
sia followed  the  example  of  the  other  powers,  and 
gave  orders  for  iron-plated  frigates,  and  the  Naval 
Board  of  the  United  States  had  the  subject  under 
consideration  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War. 

In  1 86 1  the  seizure  of  the  lower  Mississippi  by 
the  rebels  rendered  the  construction  of  armored  ships 


THE  MONITOR  AND   THE  ME  R  RIM  AC,  463 


a  necessity,  and  it  was  undertaken,  not  by  the  Navy, 
but  by  the  War  Department.  The  first  of  the  iron- 
clad gunboats  were  designed  and  built  by  James  B. 
Eads,  an  engineer  of  St.  Louis,  and  in  a  very  short 
time  he  turned  out  the  St.  Louis,  Carondelet,  Cairo, 
Louisville,  Mound  City,  Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati,  and 
Benton.  These  boats  were  plated  with  iron  2^ 
inches  thick  on  a  backing  of  4  inches  of  wood  placed 
at  an  angle  of  45  degrees  in  order  to  glance  off  hori- 
zontal shot  ;  they  were  not  impenetrable  to  heavy 
guns,  but  were  safe  against  field-batteries  and  smaller 
cannon,  and  did  excellent  service  in  the  work  for 
which  they  were  intended.  Several  other  boats  of 
the  same  kind  were  built  during  the  course  of  the 
war. 

In  the  same  year  the  rebels  raised  the  screw 
steamer  Merrimac  at  Norfolk  Navy  Yard,  where  it 
had  been  sunk  when  the  place  was  abandoned  by 
the  Government.  They  cut  down  her  sides,  plated 
her  with  railway  iron  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees  over 
a  backing  of  wood,  armed  her  with  ten  9-  and  10- 
inch  guns,  and  on  the  8th  of  March,  1862,  sent  her 
against  the  Government  fleet  in  Hampton  Roads. 
She  sunk  the  frigate  Cumberland  by  ramming,  de- 
stroyed the  Congress  with  her  battery,  and  then  re- 
tired for  the  day.  Next  morning  she  returned  to  the 
scene  of  operations  and  attacked  the  frigate  Minne- 
sota, but  was  herself  attacked  by  the  Monitor,  an  iron 
boat  with  a  revolving  turret,  armed  with  two  1  i-inch 


464 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Dahlgren  guns.  The  fight  between  the  Monitor 
and  the  Merrimac  was  a  spirited  one,  and  resulted  in 
the  retirement  of  the  Merrimac  badly  injured. 

The  battle  was  in  some  respects  one  of  the'  most 
important  that  ever  occurred  in  maritime  warfare. 
It  revolutionized  the  course  of  naval  construction  all 
over  the  globe,  and  compelled  the  adoption  of  sys- 
tems of  which  few  had  dreamed  until  that  day. 
The  Monitor  is  too  well  known  to  need  a  detailed 
description.  Suffice  it  to  say  she  was  173  feet  long 
over  all,  41  feet  6  inches  wide,  and  12  feet  deep. 
She  was  the  greatest  possible  contrast  to  the  old- 
fashioned  ship  of  the  four-decker  class,  her  freeboard 
being  so  low  that  she  was  hardly  visible  above  water 
at  a  little  distance.  Her  revolving  turret  was  20 
feet  in  diameter  and  9  feet  high,  made  of  inch  plates 
of  wrought-iron  riveted  together  until  they  reached 
a  thickness  of  8  inches. 

The  Monitor  was  built  in  New  York  in  one  hun- 
dred days,  at  a  cost  of  $275,000.  Her  designer  was 
John  Ericsson,  whose  name  has  been  repeatedly 
mentioned  in  this  volume.  The  turret  which  formed 
an  important  feature  of  this  new  style  of  gunboat, 
was  the  invention  of  Theodore  R.  Timby,  with 
additions  and  improvements  by  Ericsson. 

England  was  more  active  than  any  other  nation  in 
benefiting  by  the  lesson  of  Hampton  Roads.  Her 
dockyards  swarmed  with  workmen  busy  with  the 
construction  of  iron-clads  on  the  turret  or  other  sys- 


THE  MONITOR  AND  MERRIMAC. 


465 


tern,  and  wherever  one  of  the  old  wooden  ships  was 
found  sufficiently  sound  to  warrant  her  preservation, 
she  was  cut  down  and  armored  as  the  Merrimac  had 
been.  France,  Austria,  and  other  maritime  powers 
showed  commendable  zeal  in  following  the  example 
of  England,  and  in  less  than  a  decade  the  fleets  of 
the  world  were  almost  completely  changed. 

The  United  States  built  a  considerable  number  of 


The  Monitor  attacking  the  Merrimac. 


iron-clads,  some  upon  the  principle  of  the  Monitor, 
with  a  single  turret,  others  with  two  turrets,  and  a 
few  with  iron-plated  sides  and  bulwarks  but  without 
the  Monitor  system.  Many  of  these  boats  were 
severely  tested  during  the  war  ;  some  were  lost,  but 
the  majority  survived  through  many  perils  and  were 
afloat,  and  practically  uninjured,  in  i865  when  peace 
was  declared. 

The  original  Monitor  was  lost  in  a  gale  off  Cape 


466 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


Hatteras  ;  the  Merrimac  was  blown  up  by  the  rebels 
when  they  abandoned  Norfolk.  The  Monitors  were 
never  intended  for  cruising  purposes,  but  they  moved 
safely  along  the  coast  during  the  Civil  War.  In  i865 
one  of  them,  the  Miantonomah,  visited  Europe,  go- 
ing up  the  Baltic  to  Cronstadt,  making  a  cruise  in 
the  Mediterranean,  and  returning  home  by  the  West 
Indies.  Another  of  these  vessels,  the  Monadnock, 
went  to  California  via  the  Straits  of  Magellan  with- 
out accident  ;  two  others,  the  Catawba  and  Oneonta, 
were  sold  to  the  Peruvian  Government  and  went  to 
Callao  where  their  names  were  chancred  to  Manco 
Capac  and  Atahuallpa. 

At  the  present  time  all  the  fighting  ships  of  the 
world,  with  the  exception  of  coasting  and  revenue 
steamers,  armed  despatch  boats,  light  gunboats,  and 
similar  craft,  are  protected  widi  armor  in  one  sort  or 
another.  In  all  the  maritime  nations  there  has  been 
a  friendly  contest  between  the  naval  architects  and 
the  ordnance  board,  the  one  attempting  to  build  an 
impenetrable  ship  and  the  other  to  devise  a  gun  that 
shall  penetrate  whatever  the  other  builds.  Thus  far 
the  guns  have  the  best  of  the  contest,  as  no  targets 
have  been  made  that  can  resist  the  smashing  force 
of  the  steel  projectiles  of  a  thousand  pounds  and 
more  thrown  from  the  monster  cannon  which  the 
English  ordnance  department  or  private  English  con- 
structors have  turned  out.  In  range,  weight,  or  pro- 
jectiles, rapidity  of  firing,  and  in  nearly  every  other 


468 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


quality,  the  rifled  cannon  of  to-day  are  immensely  in 
advance  of  those  of  the  time  of  our  war.*^* 

Such  of  the  wooden  sailing  vessels  as  still  exist  in 
the  navies  of  the  world  are  used  for  receiving  and 
training  ships  at  the  navy  yards,  and  if  they  go  to 
sea  at  all  it  is  for  school  purposes  or  for  the  trans- 
portation of  stores.  The  strength  of  the  navies  of 
the  world  is  set  down  as  follows  in  the  latest  obtain- 
able returns  : 

*  The  period  since  the  close  of  our  Civil  War  has  been  prolific  in  great 
advances  in  the  means  and  methods  of  attack.  The  iron  plating  of  ships-of- 
war  has  been  increased  from  four  inches  to  twenty-five  inches  on  the  English 
ship  l7i flexible,  and  when  a  practicable  limit  as  to  the  thickness  of  iron 
plates  seemed  reached,  compound  armor  and  all-steel  plates  were  intro- 
duced. Recent  British  ships  carry  eighteen  inches  of  compound  armor,  and 
the  Admiral  Baudin  and  Formidable  of  the  French  navy  are  protected  by 
solid  steel  plates  twenty-one  and  seven-eighths  inches  in  thickness. 

"  Heavy  ordnance  has  increased  in  weight  and  power  to  a  like  extent. 
Whereas  in  1862  our  200-pounder  Parrot  rifle  was  one  of  the  most  effective 
weapons  extant,  we  have,  in  1872,  the  English  lyf-inch,  100-ton  gun,  firing 
a  projectile  weighing  one  ton  with  a  powder  charge  of  550  pounds,  and 
in  1884,  the  i6|-inch,  iio-ton  Armstrong,  which  fires  an  1,800-pound  pro- 
jectile, with  the  enormous  charge  of  900  pounds  of  powder,  giving  a  muzzle 
energy  of  61,200  foot-tons,  and  a  penetration  of  over  thirty  inches  of 
wrought  iron  at  1,000  yards.  The  recent  Krupp  I5j-inch  steel  gun  weighs 
119  tons,  and  penetrates  29.2  inches  of  iron  at  1,000  yards  ;  and  the  pro- 
jected French  gun  is  to  weigh  124  tons,  with  a  calibre  of  18. ii  inches,  and 
to  fire  a  projectile  weighing  2,645  pounds,  with  a  powder  charge  of  575 
pounds. 

**  In  August,  1883,  Sir  Joseph  Whitworth,  in  testing  a  20-ton  steel  gun 
intended  for  the  Brazilian  iron-clad,  Riachuelo,  fired  a  403-lb.  steel  shell 
through  eighteen  inches  of  wrought  iron,  thirty-seven  inches  of  well- 
packed  wet  sand,  one  and  one-eighth  inches  of  steel,  various  balks  of  tim- 
ber, and  about  sixteen  feet  more  of  sand.  IVie  projectile  was  recovered 
practically  uninjured^ — '*  Our  Seacoast  Defences,"  by  Lieut.  Eugene 
Griffin,  U.S.A. 


STRENGTH  OF  THE  NAVIES  OF  THE   WORLD.  469 


'CLJ 

m 

Countries. 

No.  of  Vess 

No.  of 
m  en. 

Countries. 

No.  of  Vess 

No.  of 
Men. 

Argentine  Republic. 

33 

991 

Japan. 

31 

5.551 

Austria-Hungary. 

68 

7,222 

Mexico. 

8 

Belgium. 

10 

172 

Netherlands. 

165 

3,436 

Brazil. 

48 

4,984 

Norway. 

46 

915 

Canada  (Dominion). 

7 

Peru. 

Chili. 

10 

2,225 

Portugal. 

39 

3,200 

China. 

56 

Roumania. 

10 

530 

Denmark. 

44 

1,122 

Russia. 

373 

28,975 

Egypt. 

13 

Spam. 

124 

21,678 

France. 

302 

39,365 

Sweden. 

123 

7.723 

Germany. 

9^ 

15,200 

Turkey. 

49 

40,392 

Great  Britain&  Ireland. 

246 

57.250 

United  States, 

93 

12,204 

Greece. 

16 

2,637 

Venezuela. 

4 

200 

Italy. 

72 

15,140 

This  gives  a  total  of  2,191  vessels,  of  which  not 
less  than  three  fourths  are  propelled  by  steam.  This 
does  not  include  a  great  number  of  steam  launches, 
tenders,  small  despatch-boats,  and  the  like,  nor  the 
swarms  of  torpedo  boats  which  the  maritime  nations 
are  rapidly  accumulating.  Of  these  additional  naval 
craft  there  are  probably  not  less  than  three  thou- 
sand and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  navies  of  the 
world  contain  fully  five  thousand  vessels  of  different 
name  and  kind  whose  propelling  power  is  steam. 

There  is  an  active  rivalry  among  the  maritime 
nations  in  the  effort  to  obtain  naval  supremacy  ;  the 
skill  of  inventors  and  architects  is  taxed  to  the 
utmost  capacity,  and  enormous  amounts  of  money 


470 


J^OBERT  FULTON, 


have  been  expended  upon  experiments  or  upon  the 
construction  of  ships  on  novel  principles.  The  tor- 
pedo, the  submarine  boat,  and  possibly  the  use  of 
dynamite  in  projectiles,  promise  to  make  as  great  a 
revolution  in  the  system  of  maritime  warfare  as  did 
the  application  of  steam  to  the  propulsion  of  naval 
vessels. 

Before  going  further,  we  will  examine  some  of  the 
modern  appliances.  The  torpedo  and  the  submarine 
boat  have  been  mentioned  in  a  previous  chapter,  as 
they  were  the  study  of  the  subject  of  this  biography, 
and  derived  several  of  their  important  features  from 
his  inventive  skill.  Dynamite  guns  are  new  to  us  ; 
dynamite  was  unknown  till  more  than  half  a  century 
after  Fulton's  death,  and  it  is  only  since  this  compila- 
tion was  begun  that  experiments  to  use  it  in  projec- 
tiles have  been  successful.  If  this  terrible  explosive 
can  be  safely  handled  and  used  for  the  charging  of 
shells,  the  modern  iron-clad  ship  will  be  as  pene- 
trable as  the  old  wooden  wall  of  a  hundred  years 
ago.  Naval  warfare  will  come  to  a  speedy  end 
through  the  destructiveness  that  will  be  in  the  hands 
of  all  the  combatants. 

Of  the  offensive  torpedo  of  to-day  there  are  many 
varieties  :  the  Whitehead,  Pole,  Ley,  Harvey,  and 
Nordenfeldt  systems  are  the  best  known,  each  of 
them  bearing  the  name  of  its  inventor.  Briefly  de- 
scribed, they  are  self-propelling  boats,  carrying  an 
explosive  which  is  designed  to  destroy  the  ship  of  an 


THE  BATTLE  ON  THE  MIN  RIVER, 


enemy  ;  some  are  propelled  by  eleclricity,  others  by 
compressed  air,  and  others  are  carried  at  the  ends  of 
spars,  projecting  from  the  bow  of  a  steam-launch 
sufficiently  far  to  leave  the  latter  in  a  place  of  safety. 

Only  a  few  of  the  modern  torpedoes  have  been 
tried  in  actual  warfare.  In  a  previous  chapter,  men- 
tion was  made  of  their  use  in  the  war  between  Rus- 
sia and  Turkey,  and  the  comparatively  inconsequen- 
tial results.  Up  to  the  time  of  writing  these  pages, 
the  most  notable  instance  of  the  use  of  torpedoes  in 
naval  warfare  is  in  the  operations  of  the  French  in 
China  in  1884.  The  result  is  thus  described  by  an 
officer  of  the  United  States  navy  who  was  on  the 
Min  River  at  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the 
Chinese  fleet  : 

"  Four  minutes  from  the  commencement  of  the  action 
a  heavy  explosion  told  the  successful  work  of  the  torpedo- 
boat  detailed  to  destroy  the  Yung  Woo.  In  this  short 
time,  and  before  the  Yung  Woo  was  fairly  in  action,  and 
had  brought  her  guns  to  bear,  the  torpedo  had  done  its 
deadly  work,  and  had  destroyed  this  fine  vessel.  The 
officers  in  charge  of  the  torpedo  boat  had  successfully 
placed  a  torpedo  under  her  counter  while  she  was  in  the 
act  of  turning.  It  nearly  blew  her  out  of  water,  and  the 
vessel  soon  sank,  on  fire  afore  and  aft,  a  total  wreck. 
Many  of  her  officers  and  crew  perished.  The  torpedo 
boat  dropped  down  the  river,  out  of  action,  her  com- 
mander and  one  of  her  crew  having  been  wounded,  prob- 
ably by  one  of  the  French  machine  guns.  Referring  to 
the  machine  guns,  which  the  French  seem  to  have  had  in 
abundance,  the  writer  remarks  that  the  greatest  destruc- 


472 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


tion  was  occasioned  by  them.  They  rained  their  explosive 
shells  upon  the  decks,  cutting  down  the  crews  at  their 
guns,  so  that  they  could  hardly  reload  them.  Their  fire 
demoralized  men  and  officers,  and  drove  them  to  seek 
shelter  and  escape  by  jumping  overboard.  The  decks  of 
the  vessels,  as  they  drifted  down  the  river,  were  covered 
with  dead  and  wounded.  To  these  guns  may  also  be  as- 
cribed the  rapidity  and  thoroughness  with  which  the  ves- 
sels were  set  on  fire.  The  importance  of  this  class  of 
armament  was  clearly  demonstrated  in  this  action,  and 
the  conditions  for  their  use  were  the  most  favorable. 
No  modern  man-of-war  will  be  efficient  without  them. 
Her  crew  would  be  at  the  mercy  of  an  opponent  armed 
with  them.  The  French  torpedo  boats  were  of  steel, 
about  fifty  feet  in  length,  of  high  speed,  armed  with  spar 
torpedoes. 

In  Admiral  Courbet's  operations,  two  torpedo  launches 
from  the  flagship  Bayard  were  despatched  up  the  Yang-tse- 
Kiang  to  destroy  two  Chinese  men-of-war,  the  frigate  Yu- 
Yuen  and  the  corvette  Tcheng-King,  anchored  in  the 
channel  and  covered  by  fire  from  the  shore.  The  attack 
was  made  in  the  night,  but  the  boats  were  discovered 
before  getting  up,  and  were  received  by  a  warm  fire  from 
the  frigate,  which  was  supported  from  the  shore.  The 
boats  put  on  full  speed.  Commander  Gourdon's  boat 
struck  first,  right  astern.  The  torpedo  exploded,  but  the 
boat  could  not  get  away  as  her  spar  was  caught,  and  she 
had  to  unscrew  her  fittings  to  let  go.  In  this  critical  posi- 
tion, a  man  was  killed  by  a  shot  from  shore.  The  boat 
was  backing  off  when  Lieutenant  Duboc's  boat  came  up 
at  full  speed,  struck  the  frigate  on  the  starboard  quarter, 
and  exploded  her  torpedo.  The  engine  had  been  reversed 
before  the  collision,  and  she  got  clear  at  once,  and  the 


MACHINE  GUNS. 


473 


two  boats  made  off  together  under  the  fire  of  the  Chinese 
small  arms  and  machine  guns.  By  the  Hght  of  early  dawn 
it  was  seen  that  the  frigate  sank,  remaining  upright,  half- 
way to  her  tops,  the  corvette  being  inclined  and  sunk  to 
her  rail.  It  seemed  probable  to  the  French  commander 
that  the  corvette  was  sunk  by  the  fire  of  the  shore  bat- 
teries and  frigate  against  the  boats.  The  frigate  was  a 
fine  vessel,  of  3,400  tons,  built  at  Shanghai,  on  the  plans 
of  American  constructors,  about  twelve  years  ago.  She 
was  armed  with  twenty-three  breech-loading  guns,  twenty 
of  which  were  in  broadside  and  three  on  the  forecastle 
and  poop.  She  had  also  some  Nordenfeldts.  The  cor- 
vette had  seven  guns." 

The  machine  guns  referred  to  by  the  above  writer 
were  probably  the  French  mitrailleuse  and  the  guns 
of  the  Hotchkiss  system,  which  has  been  adopted  by 
the  French  and  also  by  the  naval  authorities  of  other 
nations.  There  are  several  sizes  of  this  gun  or  can- 
non— the  smallest  throwing  a  projectile  the  size  of 
an  ordinary  rifle  ball,  while  the  largest  throws  one 
weighing  four  pounds.  The  gun  is  mounted  on  a 
pivot,  either  on  a  carriage  or  on  the  rail  of  a  ship, 
and  can  be  aimed  from  the  shoulder  like  an  ordinary 
musket.  The  smaller  size  has  a  rano^e  of  five  hun- 
dred  yards  and  more,  while  it  is  claimed  that  the 
largest  sized  gun  can  deliver  its  projectiles  at  the 
rate  of  twenty  a  minute  a  distance  of  fully  one  mile. 

Other  machine  guns  are  the  Catling,  Berdan,  . 
Maxim,  Gardner,   and  Nordenfeldt — the   last  be- 
ing largely  used  in  the  English  navy  (together  with 


474 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


the  Hotchkiss),  and  the  first  having-  a  favorable 
name  all  over  the  world.  In  range,  rapidity  of  fire, 
and  general  effectiveness,  they  vary  greatly  ;  some 
of  them  discharging  heavy  projectiles  at  a  slow  rate, 
and  others  throwing  smaller  ones  more  rapidly.  The 
range  varies  from  three  hundred  yards  upwards. 
They  discharge  from  twenty  to  five  or  six  hundred 
projectiles  in  a  minute.  The  Gatling  fires  1,200  a 
minute,  and  the  weight  of  the  missile  is  adapted  to 
the  size  of  the  weapon,  each  system  having  a  series 
of  sizes.  At  close  quarters  in  a  naval  encounter  they 
are  terribly  effective,  but,  happily  for  the  human  race, 
have  been  tried  only  on  rare  occasions. 

Of  the  offensive  torpedoes,  the  Whitehead  is  prob- 
ably the  best  known  and  more  generally  adopted 
than  any  other.  Several  of  the  maritime  nations 
have  adopted  it,  to  the  exclusion  of  other  systems, 
while  some  have  given  all  the  prominent  systems  a 
place.  The  torpedoes  are  carried  upon  ships  of  war 
to  be  launched  from  ports  or  openings  specially  pre- 
pared for  them,  and  every  fleet  has  a  liberal  equip- 
ment of  light,  swift-running  boats,  carrying  torpedoes 
for  offence,  and  armed  with  machine  guns  and 
smaller  weapons  for  defence.  These  torpedo  boats 
are  capable  of  steaming  18  or  20  miles  an  hour,  and 
it  is  claimed  recently  that  an  English  torpedo  boat 
has  exceeded  22  miles.  The  intention  is  for  the 
boat  to  come  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  an  ene- 
my's ship,  and  then  launch  a  torpedo  in  the  latter  s 


476 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


direction.  By  means  of  its  own  propulsive  power, 
the  torpedo  then  goes  to  its  mark — provided,  al- 
ways, the  mark  remains  where  it  should. 

Many  naval  men  claim  that  the  torpedo  as  an  of- 
fensive weapon  has  been  greatly  overrated,  and  be- 
lieve that  its  effectiveness  is  really  very  slight.  Of 
course  it  will  be  impossible  to  demonstrate  who  is 
right  and  who  wrong  in  the  controversy,  until  a 
great  naval  contest  shall  occur.  It  is  therefore  to 
be  hoped  that  the  settlement  of  the  controversy 
will  be  indefinitely  postponed. 

Numerous  inventors  have  busied  themselves  over 
designs  of  submarine  boats,  but  few  have  brought 
out  any  thing  practical  and  useful.  The  most  suc- 
cessful craft  of  this  kind  thus  far  are  those  of  Nor- 
denfeldt  and  Goubet,  but  as  neither  has  been  tried 
in  real  warfare,  the  success  is  theoretical  rather  than 
practical.  The  boats  are  ingeniously  contrived,  and 
deserve  more  than  a  passing  notice. 

Mr.  Nordenfeldt  is  the  inventor  of  the  gun  that 
bears  his  name.  His  first  submarine  boat  was  built 
at  Stockholm  in  1883,  and  is  intended  to  be  com- 
pletely submerged  at  the  will  of  her  commander. 
According  to  the  published  description  the  boat  is 
cigar-shaped,  with  a  cofifin-like  projection  on  the  top 
amidships,  formed  by  vertical  combings  support- 
ing a  glass  dome,  or  conning  tower,  one  foot  high, 
which  enables  the  commander  to  see  his  way.  The 
dome,  with  its  iron  protecting  cover,  stands  on  a 


NORDENFELDT  SUBMARINE  BOAT, 


477 


horizontal  lid,  which  can  be  swung  aside  to  allow 
the  crew  of  three  men  to  get  in  or  out  without  diffi- 
culty. The  length  of  the  hull  is  64  feet,  and  the  cen- 
tral diameter  9  feet.  It  is  built  of  Swedish  mild  steel 
plates  |-  inch  thick  at  the  centre,  tapered  to  |^  inch  at 
the  ends,  supported  on  angle-iron  framing,  3  inches 
by  3  inches  by  -|  inch.  The  arrangements  for  sink- 
ing the  boat  are  of  a  special  nature,  for  which  the 
inventor  claims  important  advantages.  Practically, 
such  a  boat  can  be  sunk  in  three  ways — singly  or 


Nordenfeldt  Submarine  Boat. 


taken  in  combination.  It  may  be  forced  down  by 
power  applied  from  within,  weighted  down  by  tak- 
ing in  sea  water  sufficient  to  destroy  the  buoyancy, 
or  it  may  be  steered  down  by  the  application  of  its 
ordinary  motive  power,  modified  by  a  horizontal 
rudder.  Mr.  Nordenfeldt  has  adopted  the  former 
arrangement,  placing  sponsons  on  each  side  of  the 
boat  amidships,  in  which  are  wells  for  the  vertical 


478 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


propellers  capable  of  working  the  boat  up  or  down. 
In  order  to  prepare  for  action,  enough  sea  water  is 
taken  in  to  reduce  the  buoyancy  to  one  hundred- 
weight, which  suffices  to  keep  the  conning  tower 
well  above  the  surface.  In  order  to  sink  the  boat 
further,  the  vertical  propellers  are  set  in  motion,  and, 
by  their  action,  it  is  held  at  the  required  depth. 
Thus,  to  come  to  the  surface  again,  it  is  merely 
necessary  to  stop  the  vertical  propellers,  in  which 
case  the  reserve  of  buoyancy  at  once  comes  into 
play.  This  principle  is  rightly  regarded  as  impor- 
tant, even  if  not  essential,  in  a  safe  submarine  boat. 
A  break-down  in  the  engines  does  not  entail  danger, 
since  the  reserve  of  buoyancy  is  never  lost  for  a  mo- 
ment. As  a  still  further  safeguard,  however,  Mr. 
Nordenfeldt  has  provided  an  automatic  check  on  the 
downward  motion.  A  lever,  with  a  weight  which 
can  be  adjusted  so  as  to  counterbalance  any  desired 
head  of  water,  is  connected  with  a  throttle  valve  sup- 
plying steam  to  the  engines  working  the  vertical  pro- 
pellers. Thus  directly  the  desired  depth  is  exceeded, 
the  increased  head  of  outside  water  overcomes  the 
weight,  and  the  vertical  propellers  are  stopped. 

The  motive  power  is  steam  alone,  generated  in  a 
boiler  of  the  ordinary  marine  type  with  a  forced 
draught.  So  long  as  the  boat  runs  on  the  surface, 
this  boiler  can  be  stoked  and  a  constant  head  of 
steam  maintained.  The  smoke  is  driven  out  through 
two  channels  which  pass  partly  around  the  hull  and 


NORDENFELDT  SUBMARINE  BOAT, 


479 


point  aft.  For  submarine  work,  no  stoking  is,  of 
course,  possible,  and  the  fire-box  has  to  be  sealed. 
It  is  therefore  necessary  to  store  the  requisite  power 
beforehand,  and  this  is  done  by  heating  the  water  in 
two  tanks  placed  fore  and  aft  and  connected  by  cir- 
culating tubes  with  the  boiler,  till  a  pressure  of  about 
i5o  pounds  per  square  inch  is  attained.  With  about 
this  initial  pressure,  it  is  stated  that  the  boat  has 
been  driven  for  i6  miles  at  a  speed  of  three  knots. 
The  greatest  surface  speed  attained  is  a  little  over 


Interior  of  Nordenfeldt's  Boat. 


eight  knots,  and  the  boat  has  been  run  for  i5o  miles 
without  recoalincf.  There  are  three  sets  of  enc^ines, 
one  of  which  drives  the  propeller,  an  ordinary  four- 
bladed  screw,  5  feet  in  diameter,  with  a  pitch  of  7 
feet  6  inches.  The  other  eni^ines  drive  the  blower 
and  the  horizontal  propellers  respectively. 

One  of  the  principal  difficulties  of  submarine  navi- 
gation is  to  preserve  an  even  keel  when  under  water. 
Should  a  boat  turn  downward  when  in  motion  be- 


480 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


low  the  surface,  it  might  easily  strike  the  bottom,  or 
reach  a  depth  at  whicli  it  must  collapse  before  its 
course  could  be  arrested.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
bow  took  an  upward  turn  under  the  same  circum- 
stances, the  boat  would  rapidly  come  to  the  surface, 
and  be  exposed  to  view  and  to  projectiles.  It  is  evi- 
dently, therefore,  of  the  utmost  importance  to  pro- 
vide ample  steering  power  in  a  vertical  direction.  In 
the  Nordenfeldt  boat  two  horizontal  rudders  are 
placed,  one  on  each  side  near  the  bows,  and  are 
acted  upon  by  a  pendulum  inside  the  hull.  This 
pendulum,  coming  into  play  the  instant  the  boat 
takes  a  cant  in  either  direction,  actuates  the  horizon- 
tal rudders  and  causes  her  immediately  to  return  to 
an  even  keel.  By  this  means  it  is  claimed  that  the 
boat  is  automatically  kept  with  her  axis  horizontal, 
while  since  the  bow  rudders  are  entirely  beyond  the 
control  of  the  crew  there  is  no  danger  of  accident 

due  to  neorlect  or  loss  of  nerve.    In  the  event  of  a 

<_> 

breakdown  of  the  above  arrangement,  it  is  neces- 
sary at  once  to  stop  the  boat  and  let  her  return  to 
the  surface.  No  compressed  air  is  carried,  and  the 
crew  depend,  therefore,  for  existence  on  the  amount 
of  air  sealed  up  in  the  hull.  With  this  amount  of 
air  only,  four  men  have  remained  for  a  period  of  six 
hours  without  any  especial  inconvenience. 

M.  Goubet,  the  inventor  of  another  submarine 
boat,  is  a  Frenchman  ;  the  Russian  Government  has 
ordered  three  hundred  of  his  boats,  and  a  Paris  news- 


482 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


paper,  LUllustration,  of  November  28,  i885,  says 
that  fifty  of  these  have  already  been  finished  and 
delivered.  The  boat  is  propelled  by  electricity, 
contained  in  accumulators  or  secondary  batteries  ; 
the  screw-shaft  has  a  joint,  so  that  the  screw  can  be 
inclined  to  right  or  left  while  in  motion,  and  thus  the 
course  of  the  boat  is  directed  without  the  necessity 
of  a  rudder.  An  officer  and  a  sailor  compose  the 
crew,  and  they  are  seated  back  to  back  under  the 
dome,  which  has  to  be  removed  to  permit  ingress  or 
egress.    All  around  the  base  of  the  dome  are  glass 

bulls  eyes,''  for  purposes  of  observation.  At 
starting  on  an  expedition  the  officer  notes  the  di- 
rection of  the  point  he  wishes  to  attain  by  sighting 
upon  a  guide-rod  which  rises  like  a  flagstaff  from  the 
bow  and  taking  its  bearings  by  compass.  Then,  with 
the  compass  strictly  beneath  his  eye,  he  gives  the 
required  instructions  to  the  man  at  the  wheel. 

The  box  on  which  officer  and  man  are  seated  is 
filled  with  compressed  air.  The  proper  buoyancy  is 
maintained  by  receiving  or  discharging  water  by 
means  of  a  pump,  and  in  case  of  damage  to  machin- 
ery or  other  accident  the  leaden  keel  can  be  instantly 
detached,  and  the  boat  will  rise  rapidly  to  the  sur- 
face. The  torpedo  is  carried  on  the  top  of  the  boat 
near  the  stern  ;  it  is  provided  with  hooks  by  which 
it  is  prevented  from  slipping  from  the  bottom  of  an 
enemy's  ship,  and  it  is  buoyant,  so  that  it  rises  when 
detached  by  the  hand  of  the  sailor  who  has  it  within 


484 


JWBERT  FULTON, 


reach.  When  it  is  detached  the  boat  moves  off,  an 
electric  thread  a  hundred  yards  in  length  unwinds, 
and  as  the  end  is  reached  the  torpedo  is  exploded 
by  means  of  the  spark.  The  boat  is  about  20  feet 
long  by  three  and  a  half  in  diameter,  exclusive  of 
dome  and  keel,  and  therefore  much  smaller  than  the 
Nordenfeldt  boat.  It  has  a  speed  of  five  knots  an 
hour,  and  can  remain  five  or  six  hours  under  water 
at  a  time.  The  Russian  Admiralty  has  faith  in  its 
ability  to  blow  up  an  enemy's  ships  at  anchor,  but 
does  not  pretend  that  it  would  be  of  any  use  in  attack 
ing  a  ship  in  motion  on  the  sea. 

An  American  inventor,  Mr.  J.  L.  Tuck,  has  de- 
signed a  submarine  boat  propelled  by  electricity  or 
by  compressed  air  at  a  speed  of  four  to  five  miles 
an  hour.  He  claims  to  be  able  to  place  and 
explode  a  torpedo  beneath  a  ship  at  anchor,  by 
means  of  his  boat  which  can  be  operated  by  one 
man.     The  mode  of  working  it  is  as  follows  : 

The  boat  is  about  twelve  feet  long  and  has  the 
general  appearance  of  a  ship's  yawl  with  a  deck 
over  it.  It  is  propelled  by  a  screw  and  steered  by 
a  rudder  and  the  propelling  and  steering  apparatus 
are  under  the  control  of  the  operator,  who  sits  in  a 
sort  of  well  in  the  centre  of  the  boat  with  the  upper 
half  of  his  body  encased  in  a  suit  of  submarine 
armor.  Within  his  reach  is  the  handle  of  a  pump 
that  will  admit  or  eject  water  in  order  to  sink  or 
raise  the  boat,  and  lying  on  the  top  of  the  boat  is 


Tuck's  Torpedo  Leaving  a  Vessel. 


486 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


the  torpedo  which  is  to  blow  up  the  ship  which  has 
been  destined  for  destruction. 

The  operator  steers  his  boat  so  as  to  bring  it  be- 
neath the  ship.  Then  he  releases  the  torpedo 
which  is  in  two  sections,  connected  by  a  cord  and 
made  buoyant  so  that  it  will  rise  when  released  and 
lie  against  the  bottom  of  the  ship.  Having  properly 
placed  the  torpedo  the  operator  retires,  unwinding 
an  electric  wire  as  he  goes.  At  a  safe  distance  he 
touches  an  electric  key,  and  if  every  thing  works  as 
predicted  and  expected  the  ship  is  blown  into  frag- 
ments. 

The  submarine  boat  of  the  future  will  possess 
the  immersive  abilities  of  the  craft  just  described, 
together  with  the  power  to  propel  itself  not  less 
than  twenty  miles  an  hour  when  wholly  submerged. 
Such  boats  will  be  dangerous  to  ships  in  motion  as 
they  can  be  launched  from  the  side  of  the  vessel 
that  carries  them,  and  with  speed  superior  to  that  of 
the  enemy,  can  overtake  and  destroy  him.  Sup- 
pose a  boat  of  this  kind  with  a  speed  of  twenty 
miles  an  hour  is  launched  against  an  enemy's  ship 
ten  miles  away,  the  latter  having  a  speed  of  fifteen 
miles.  The  chase  lasts  two  hours  ;  the  submarine 
boat  rises  a  few  moments  at  a  time  to  take  fresh 
air  and  learn  the  bearings  of  the  pursued,  but  never 
remaining  long  enough  above  the  surface  to  run 
any  serious  risk  of  being  hit  by  a  shot.  At  the 
end  of  the  chase  the  torpedo  makes  short  work  of 


THE  BERDAN  TORPEDO  BOAT, 


487 


its  victim,  unless  the  skill  of  the  inventor  provides  a 
netting  that  shall  enclose  the  ship  below  as  well  as 
at  the  sides.  Nettings  are  now  in  use  to  prevent 
surface  torpedoes  reaching  the  side  of  a  ship,  but 
no  netting  has  been  devised  to  protect  it  from 
below. 

Colonel  Berdan  claims  to  have  devised  a  torpedo 
for  use  against  a  ship  protected  by  nettings.  It  is 
in  two  parts,  and  as  one  part  strikes  the  netting, 
the  other  drops  off  and  sinks  below  it,  till  it  tight- 
ens a  cord  by  which  the  two  are  connected.  This 
cord  sets  in  motion  some  machinery  that  carries  the 
torpedo  upwards  inside  the  netting  and  against  the 
^ide  of  the  ship,  where  it  explodes  by  a  simple 
device.  If  this  torpedo  works  according  to  the 
inventor's  calculations,  the  crinoline  protection  for 
ships  will  be  of  no  further  use. 

The  same  inventor  has  designed  a  high-speed 
torpedo  boat,  which  is  thus  described  : 

The  boat  is  a  double-ender,  with  a  shaft  running 
through  it,  having  a  screw  at  each  end.  One  screw  will 
pull  and  the  other  push.  With  these  two  screws  and  the 
powerful  engines  it  is  proposed  to  carry,  the  boat  ought 
to  attain  a  speed  of  twenty-four  and  one  half  knots  an 
hour,  according  to  verified  calculations.  Nearly  all  the 
space  below  the  water-line  will  be  taken  up  by  engines 
of  1,200  indicated  horse  power  and  coal  sufficient  for  four 
days*  running.  This  enormous  power  will  be  so  distribu- 
ted as  not  to  rack  the  boat  to  pieces  in  its  application. 
The  double  arrangement  of  screws  will  help  to  this  end. 


488 


There  are,  of  course,  incidental  disadvantages  in  such  an 
arrangement,  but  it  is  hoped  that  the  advantages  will  out- 
weigh them.  All  the  engines  and  boilers  will  be  below 
the  water-line,  so  that  only  a  plunging  shot  can  reach 
them.  They  will  be  arranged  in  two  sets,  so  that  if  one 
is  disabled  by  a  shot  or  otherwise,  the  other  will  be  left  to 
drive  the  boat  at  nearly  three-quarters  speed.  The  screw 
shaft  is  geared  to  the  engine  shafts,  so  as  to  make  three 
revolutions  to  one  of  theirs,  and  is  designed  to  make  lOO 
turns  a  minute. 

^^The  four  pairs  of  torpedoes  will  be  arranged  two  at 
each  end  of  the  boat,  and  thus  both  load  and  power  will 
be  evenly  distributed  over  the  craft.  The  dimensions  are 
to  be  :  Length,  220  feet ;  beam,  20  feet ;  and  depth,  10 
feet.  A  double-track  railway  extends  fore  and  aft  along 
the  deck.  On  this  will  run  the  trucks  that  carry  the  tor- 
pedoes. These  trucks  will  be  furnished  with  them,  will 
go  overboard  with  them,  and  will  not  be  recovered.  The 
torpedoes  will  cost  $10,000  a  pair.  They  are  to  be  de- 
signed for  three  speeds — one  to  run  at  thirty  knots  an 
hour  for  outside  work,  one  at  twenty  knots  for  large 
rivers,  and  a  third  at  a  still  lower  speed  for  cramped 
places.  The  highest  speed  is  not  desirable  in  the  latter 
cases,  because  accuracy  is  sacrificed  in  part.  The  torpeao 
may  run  by  its  mark  before  it  is  accurately  aimed.  An 
elevated  disk  carried  on  the  leading  torpedo  shows  where 
it  is,  and,  by  keeping  that  in  line  with  the  desired  mark,  the 
steersman  is  enabled  to  send  the  two  easily  and  certainly 
to  their  destination.  It  is  as  simple  as  steering  a  boat.  The 
steersman  on  the  torpedo  vessel  pulls  one  or  the  other  of 
the  tiller  wires  until  the  disk  comes  up  into  line  with  the 
mark.  The  system  of  two  connected  torpedoes  is  to  be 
used  against  iron-clads — a  single  torpedo  being  sent  against 
a  hostile  torpedo  boat  or  other  craft  without  armor/* 


NAVAL   VESSELS  OF  RECENT  CONSTR UCTLON,  489 


Let  us  see  what  is  being  done  in  the  different 
navies  of  the  world,  and,  as  we  do  so,  we  bear  in 
mind  that  every  ship  referred  to  is  propelled  by  the 
power  first  successfully  applied  by  Fulton  to  the 
Clermont. 

Our  Board  of  Officers  appointed  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  U.  S.  Navy  to  consider  plans  for  new 
cruisers  have  recommended  the  construction  of  two 
ships  of  from  3,000  to  5, 000  tons,  and  two  gun- 
boats of  1,600  and  1,000  tons  respectively.  A  re- 
cent writer  on  this  subject  says  : 

The  latest  twin-screw  cruisers  built  in  England  for  the 
Japanese  Government — the  Takachiho-Kan  and  Naniwa- 
Kan — are  of  the  fastest  and  most  heavily  armed  type, 
and  are  regarded  as  possessing  the  most  trustworthy  im- 
provements yet  embodied.  In  length  they  are  300  feet; 
breadth,  46  feet;  draught,  i8|-  feet;  displacement,  3,600 
tons.  They  have  ram  bows,  and  can  discharge  White- 
head torpedoes  from  four  above-water  ports,  and  are 
armed  with  two  io|-inch  guns,  mounted  on  central  pivot 
carriages  as  bow  and  stern-chasers ;  six  5  to  9-inch  guns  in 
broadside  on  central  pivot  carriages,  and  ten  i-inch 
machine  guns,  and  two  rapid-firing  guns,  besides  for  Gat- 
lings  mounted  in  the  tops  of  the  two  military  masts. 
All  the  guns  except  the  Gatlings  are  on  the  upper  deck, 
and  carry  steel  shields  attached  to  their  carriages.  Each 
ship  has  a  protection  deck,  from  two  to  three  inches 
thick,  extending  fore  and  aft,  with  the  sides  curving  be- 
low the  water-line,  and  the  hulls  are  minutely  subdivided. 
Their  engines  are  to  develop  about  7,500-horse  power, 
and  give  a  speed  of  18  to  i8|- knots. 


490 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


"  The  proposed  cruisers  to  be  built  for  our  navy  are  to 
be  of  the  same  length,  three  feet  more  beam,  six  inches 
less  draught,  and  are  to  have  a  speed  of  i8  knots.  The 
armament  of  the  first  will  consist  of  two  8-inch  and 
eight  6-inch  breech-loading  rifles.  The  secondary  battery 
will  consist  of  four  2.24-inch  rapid-firing  Hotchkiss 
cannon,  four  1.85-inch  revolving  Hotchkiss,  one  1.45-inch 
low-power  Hotchkiss,  and  two  short  Catlings,  to  be 
mounted  on  the  lower  decks,  without  protection  by 
armor  other  than  a  light  shield  on  the  gun.  She  will 
carry  a  complete  outfit  for  the  Whitehead  torpedo,  suit- 
able for  six  above-water  launching  tubes.  The  second 
cruiser  is  similar  in  size  to  the  above,  except  that  the 
main  battery  will  consist  of  twelve  6-inch  guns  mounted 
on  the  open  deck,  on  central  pivot  carriages,  so  disposed 
in  sponsons  and  recessed  ports  that  four  guns  may  fire  in 
a  line  of  the  keel  at  the  bow  and  stern.  The  American 
designers  have  no  doubt  adopted  the  very  best  points  in  the 
Japanese  cruisers,  and  added  such  of  their  own  as  will 
increase  the  efficiency  of  the  ship. 

The  Brazilians  have  recently  received  a  new  ship  from 
England.  She  is  a  ship-rigged,  twin  screw,  armored  tur- 
ret ship,  of  the  following  dimensions :  Length,  280  feet ; 
breadth,  52  feet;  draught,  18  feet;  displacement,' 5,000 
tons ;  is  built  of  steel,  has  many  water-tight  compart- 
ments, and  is  sheathed  with  wood  and  copper  as  high  as 
two  feet  above  the  water-line.  She  has  a  ram  and  five 
Whitehead  torpedo  ports.  The  armament  consists  of 
four  9-inch  twenty-ton  Armstrong  guns,  mounted  with 
hydraulic  gear  into  two  eghclonned  turrets,  four  5|-inch 
Armstrong  guns  on  Vavasseur  carriages,  mounted  on  the 
upper  deck,  two  firing  right  ahead  and  two  right  astern, 
and  fifteen  Nordenfeldt  guns.  Her  engines  are  of  the 
three-cylinder  compound  type.     With  six  out  of  eight 


NAVAL   VESSELS  OF  RECENT  CON STRUCTLON.  49I 


boilers,  her  speed  was  15.8  knots.  With  one  screw,  the 
speed  was  11.5  knots,  with  fifteen  degrees  helm  angle. 

The  Italian  Government  has  procured  from  England 
a  steel  cruiser,  schooner-rigged,  similar  to  the  Esmeralda, 
but  rather  larger,  having  the  following  dimensions : 
Length,  280  feet;  breadth,  42  feet  ;  draught,  i8|-  feet; 
displacement,  about  3,100  tons.  She  has  a  ram  bow,  and 
three  under-water  launching  tubes  for  Whitehead  tor^ 
pedoes.  Her  armament  consists  of  two  6-inch  breech- 
loading  rifles,  mounted  as  bow  and  stern-chasers,  loaded 
and  worked  by  hydraulic  gear,  six  6-inch  guns  on  cen- 
tral pivot  carriages,  mounted  in  broadside,  two  6-pounder 
rapid-firing  guns,  and  Hotchkiss  and  Nordenfeldt  machine 
^uns.  The  guns  are  protected  by  heavy  steel  shields 
jttached  to  the  carriages  ;  the  light  guns  aloft  are  mounted 
A\  small  revolving  turrets.  There  are  twin  screws,  and  the 
speed  developed  was  17.5  knots.  The  engines  and 
boilers  are  of  the  Esmeralda  type.  The  coal  supply  is 
600  tons,  good  for  5,000  miles  at  10  knots.  She  is 
named  the  Giovanni  Bausan. 

In  the  fast-cruiser  line,  the  French  have  built  a  num- 
ber of  twin-screw  armored  gunboats.  One,  the  Acheron, 
launched  last  spring,  is  of  the  following  dimensions: 
Length,  181  feet  ;  breadth,  40  feet  4  inches  ;  draught,  11 
feet  10  inches;  displacement,  1,640  tons.  She  carries  a 
loj-inch  gun  in  a  barbette  turret  forward,  and  two  3.9- 
inch  guns  amidships,  one  on  each  side.  The  bridge 
reaches  over  them,  and  the  sides  tumble  home,  to  give 
each  a  full  semi-circle  of  firing  arc.  The  whole  water- 
line  is  belted  with  Q-^-inch  armor.  The  speed  will  be  13 
knots.    Three  others  of  similar  design  are  building. 

Another  class,  known  as  cruising  torpedo  ships,  are  now 
building,  identical  in  design.  The  Condor,  the  first  of 
this  type,  has  the  following  dimensions:   Length,  229 


492 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


feet;  breadth,  29  feet;  draught,  14  feet:  displacement, 
1,260  tons.  She  .has  a  swan-breasted  ram  bow,  and  five 
above-water  torpedo  launching  tubes  between  decks, 
two  on  each  broadside,  and  one  as  a  stern-chaser.  Be- 
sides, she  has  five  3.94-inch  guns,  one  of  which  is  a  stern- 
chaser,  under  the  poop  ;  two  are  bow-chasers  under  the 
forecastle  (firing  from  ahead  to  the  beam),  and  two  more 
are  in  barbette  half-turrets  abreast  the  smokestack, 
and  are  protected  from  plunging  fire  by  the  bridge, 
which  extends  over  them.  There  is  an  armored  deck, 
reaching  fore  and  aft,  protecting  the  machinery,  maga- 
zine, and  steering  geer,  and  the  ship  is  divided  into 
water-tight  compartments  above  the  armored  deck. 
She  has  twin  screws,  and  her  estimated  speed  is  17  knots. 

Another  remarkable  vessel  is  the  Milan,  to  be  em- 
ployed solely  as  a  scouting  vessel.  She  is  built  of  steel, 
and  is  very  light,  and  has  a  swan-breasted  ram  bow.  She 
is  unprovided  with  torpedoes.  Her  length  is  303  feet ; 
breadth,  32  feet  10  inches;  draught,  9  feet  10  inches 
forward,  and  15  feet  i  inch  aft  ;  displacement,  1,050  tons. 
Her  armament  consists  of  five  3.9-inch  breech-loading 
rifles  on  hydraulic  carriages — one  on  the  bow,  one  on  the 
stern,  and  the  others  on  the  broadside,  on  shifting  pivot 
carriages,  to  fire  on  either  side — and  eight  i|  Hotchkiss 
guns.  She  has  twin  screws,  each  worked  by  two  com- 
pound tandem  engines.  On  her  trial  she  made  18.4  knots 
in  a  rather  rough  sea,  developing  4, 132-horse  power. 
The  trial  proved  her  the  fastest  man-of-war  in  existence. 

Two  of  the  new  German  vessels  of  about  2,400  tons 
are  the  Alexandrine  and  Arcona,  sister  ships.  They  be- 
long to  the  class  of  unarmored  cruiser-corvettes,  are  bark- 
rigged,  and  have  a  two-bladed  hoisting  screw.  Their  di- 
mensions are  as  follows:  Length,  223  feet ;  breadth,  41 
feet ;  draught,  16  feet  5  inches  ;  displacement,  2,370  tons. 


NAVAL   VESSELS  OF  RECENT  CONSTRUCriON.  493 


They  are  built  of  iron,  sheathed  with  a  double  layer  of 
teak,  and  coppered.  The  armament  is  ten  4.1-inch  rifles, 
four  machine  guns,  and  one  torpedo  tube.  The  speed 
will  be  from  fourteen  to  fifteen  knots.  The  Germans 
have  also  added  a  large  ship,  named  the  Oldenberg,  of 
5,200  tons,  to  their  Baltic  fleet.  She  is  heavily  armored 
with  eight  9.4-inch  guns,  four  5.9-inch  guns,  besides  three 
2\  Hotchkiss  guns,  and  two  3.1-inch  boat  guns.  There 
are  torpedo  tubes  and  a  ram  bow.  The  central  redoubt 
is  protected  by  plates  of  12.9  inches.  She  has  twin 
screws,  and  compound  engines  aggregating  3,900-horse 
power  each,  with  four  cylinders.    She  will  be  14  knots. 

"  England,  of  course,  is  earnestly  engaged  in  endeavor- 
ing successfully  to  maintain  her  ancient  superiority  on 
the  sea.  Besides  the  colossal  battleships — three  of  which, 
the  Renown,  Sanspareil,  and  Benbow,  are  the  largest 
vessels  laid  down  for  the  English  navy  since  the  Inflexible, 
twelve  years  ago — she  is  constructing  five  ships  of  the 
belted-cruiser  class.  They  are  of  steel,  of  the  following 
dimensions  :  Length,  300  feet ;  breadth,  56  feet ;  draught, 
21  feet  amidships;  displacement,  5,000  tons.  Their  ar- 
mament will  be  two  18-ton  9.3-inch  guns,  and  ten  4-ton 
6-inch,  the  latter  mounted  on  the  upper  deck  between 
the  heavy  guns,  with  steel  shields  attached  to  the  car- 
riages. Eight  Nordenfeldts  and  six  rapid-firing  guns  are 
mounted  on  the  main  deck  in  half  towers.  They  have 
four  torpedo-launching  carriages,  and  four  torpedo  tubes. 
An  armored  deck  protects  the  machinery,  aided  by  the 
coal.  The  engines  are  to  work  independent  twin  screws, 
and  are  to  be  of  the  triple  expansion  type,  the  first  ap- 
plied to  a  vessel  in  the  English  navy.  Speed,  17^  knots; 
coal  capacity,  900  tons.  Two  masts  will  carry  fore  and 
aft  sails,  and  the  tops  are  to  be  well  protected.  These 
ships  are  somewhat  heavier  than  the  new  vessels  recom- 


494 


ROBERT  FULTON, 


mended  to  the  Navy  Department,  with  a  heavier  armament, 
and  the  additional  armor  belt  will  increase  their  fighting 
qualities.  The  new  class  will  be  called  the  Orlando, 
Undaunted,  Narcissus,  Australia,  and  Galatea. 

The  twin-screw  ram  and  torpedo  vessel  Polyphemus 
is  a  novelty.  She  has  no  heavy  gun  armament,  rely- 
ing on  her  ram  and  torpedoes,  forty  in  number,  launched 
from  above-water  carriages  or  through  the  bow  and  from 
broadside  underwater  launching  tubes,  the  recent  trials 
showing  that  this  may  be  done  at  any  speed.  Her  speed 
is  over  seventeen  knots.  As  the  vessel  is  completely  sub- 
merged, and  depends  upon  artificial  light  and  forced 
ventilation  throughout  her  interior  all  the  time,  she  must 
prove  a  very  dangerous  assailant  to  any  vessel  she  may 
encounter.  She  is  240  feet  long;  beam,  40  feet;  draught 
aft,  21  feet  3  inches.  Two  new  vessels,  rather  larger,  are 
to  be  laid  down.  As  they  will  have  an  ordinary  deck  over 
their  protecting  turtle-back,  with  light  and  airy  quarters 
for  officers  and  men,  and  a  greater  coal-bearing  capacity, 
they  will  possess  independent  cruising  power,  which  the 
present  Polyphemus  was  not  intended  to  have. 

Another  class  of  torpedo  cruisers,  called  the  Scout  and 
Fearless,  seems  to  meet  with  favor  with  the  English  naval 
authorities.  The  Scout  is  of  the  following  ciimensions  : 
Length,  220  feet ;  breadth,  34  feet  ;  draught,  14.5  ;  dis- 
placement, 1,430  tons;  speed  estimated  at  more  than  16 
knots.  She  carries  eleven  launching  tubes,  ten  above  and 
one  below  water  ;  also  four  5-inch  rifles,  two  on  the  fore- 
castle and  two  on  the  poop.  Her  cost  will  probably  be 
about  $324,109.  The  design  of  the  class  of  vessels  is  so 
satisfactory  that  seven  others  of  1,600  tons  displacement 
have  been  ordered.  They  are  called  the  Archer,  Brisk, 
Cossack,  Mohawk,  Porpoise,  Tartar,  and  one  not  named. 

Since    March,    1885,  the    English    have  added  55 


NAVAL   VESSELS  OF  RECENT  CONSTRUCTION.  495 


torpedo  boats  to  their  fleet,  several  having  been 
purchased  in  other  countries  and  the  remainder  built 
in  England.  The  dimensions  of  some  of  them  are : 
Length,  113  feet;  beam,  12  feet  6  inches;  draught,  2 
feet  forward  and  6  feet  aft.  They  are  fitted  with  three 
launching  tubes  ;  two  in  the  bow  are  fixed,  while  the 
third,  near  the  stern,  can  be  trained  from  below  deck  and 
fired  from  the  pilot  house.  Their  speed  is  over  19  knots, 
and  at  moderate  speed  they  can  steam,  without  recoaling, 
1,100  miles.  Another  lot  is  to  be  of  larger  and  improved 
type.  They  are  to  be  of  steel,  with  fourteen  water-tight 
compartments,  and  will  carry  twenty  tons  of  coal,  which, 
at  10  knots  speed,  will  enable  them  to  steam  2,000  miles ; 
estimated  speed,  19  to  20  knots.  They  are  to  be  fitted 
with  five  torpedo  tubes,  and  will  carry  two  Nordenfeldts. 
A  new  class  called  torpedo  hunters  are  large  and  quick 
turning.  One  building  is  150  feet  long,  220  tons  displace- 
ment, and  will  steam  18  knots.  She  will  be  fitted  with 
four  torpedo  tubes,  firing  ahead,  on  the  bow  and  astern. 

The  French  are  building  a  large  number,  many  suitable 
to  proceed  through  the  canals  and  inland  waters  of  France, 
thereby  enabling  them  to  be  transferred  from  one  sea  to 
another.  Some  of  these  boats  were  able  to  keep  the  sea 
and  accompany  the  French  squadron  during  their  entire 
cruise,  and  upon  one  occasion  they  continued  their  voyage 
when  the  armed  vessels  were  obliged  to  seek  harbor. 
Their  speed  was  from  14  to  16  knots  in  heavy  weather, 
while  that  of  the  big  ships  was  reduced  from  14  to  7 
knots. 

Germany  is  making  a  feature  of  the  torpedoes  and 
torpedo  boats  for  coast  defence.  They  are  adding  largely 
to  the  number  of  boats  of  large  size  and  of  improved  de- 
sign. She  will  soon  have  a  fleet  of  150,  and  those  built 
by  the  Germans  have  given  fine  results.    The  latest  types 


496 


KOfiERT  FULTON. 


of  German  boats  are  109  feet  5  inches  long,  11  feet  7 
inches  wide,  and  displace  75  tons  at  a  draught  of  water  6 
feet  2  inches.  They  launch  14-inch  torpedoes  from  two 
tubes,  are  masted,  and  can  travel  with  sail  power  only. 
They  carry  a  large  quantity  of  coal  (22  tons),  which 
enables  them  to  steam  3,000  miles  at  eleven  knots.  They 
have  comfortable  quarters  for  officers  and  crew.  They 
are  fitted  with  a  cooking  stove,  a  Normandy  condenser, 
two  Hotchkiss  guns,  and  an  electric  search-light.  Their 
cost  complete  is  only  $50,000. 

Austria  is  having  built  in  England  two  steel  torpedo 
boats  of  the  following  dimensions:  Length,  35  feet; 
beam,  13.75  feet.  They  are  to  develop  1,100  to  1,200- 
horse  power  and  are  to  have  a  speed  of  24  knots  when 
light  and  22  knots  when  loaded  ready  for  service. 

The  Turkish  Government  has  ordered  six  torpedo 
boats  in  France.  Dimensions  :  Length,  101.7  feet;  beam, 
11.07  feet;  draught,  5.7  feet;  displacement,  42  tons. 
They  are  to  be  fitted  with  two  torpedo  tubes  in  the  bow 
and  are  to  carry  a  spar  torpedo  as  well.  Upon  trial  one 
of  the  boats,  carrying  twenty-four  persons,  made  20.3 
knots  over  the  measured  mile. 

^'With  that  spirit  of  enterprise  characteristic  of  the 
Japanese,  the  ancient  empire  is  pushing  to  the  front  as  a 
naval  power.  Besides  the  fine  iron-clads  she  possesses,  she 
has  contracted  for  a  seagoing  torpedo  boat,  with  twin 
screws,  of  exceptionally  large  dimensions  and  novel  de- 
sign. The  length  is  166  feet  ;  beam,  \(^\  feet ;  and  it  will 
have  a  speed  of  19  knots.  It  will  carry  several  machine 
guns,  in  addition  to  the  four  discharging  tubes  for  White- 
head torpedoes." 

China  has  recently  invested  liberally  in  torpedo 
boats  and  also  in  torpedoes  for  defensive  purposes. 


Engine  of  Modern  Steam-launch. 


49^ 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  the  United  States 
Navy  has  no  torpedo  boats,  and  that  none  of  our 
ships  of  war  now  afloat  are  provided  with  these 
modern  appHances  of  combat.  Most  of  the  inven- 
tors of  torpedoes  are  Americans,  but  their  inven- 
tions have  found  more  ready  adoption  abroad  than 
at  home.  With  an  abundant  fleet  of  torpedo  boats, 
with  suitable  fortifications,  our  harbors  and  channels 
protected  by  sunken  torpedoes,  and  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  iron-clads,  we  can  protect  our  now  defence- 
less ports  and  bid  defiance  to  other  governments 
which  at  present  may  insult  us  with  impunity. 


I  N  D 


EX. 


A 

Adam,  Emil,  451 

Advantages  of  canals,  23 

Africa,  Lines  to,  430 

Alexandre  Line,  382 

Allen,  Hugh,  423 

Allen  Line,  423 

"All-wheel"  steamboat,  451 

American  transatlantic  mails.  First, 

363  _ 
Amphibious  vehicle,  191 
Anchor  Line,  397 
Anecdote  of  steam  whistles,  232 
Anecdotes  of  keel-boatmen,  213 
Armored  ships,  460 
Around  the  world,  First  steamship, 

254 

Asia,  First  steamers  in,  309 
Atlantic,  First  steamship  across,  318 
Atlantic,  Greyhounds  of  the,  415 
Austrian  Lloyds,  428 

B 

Banvard,  John,  135 

Barges,  keel-boats,   flat-boats,  and 

rafts,  218 
Battle  between  Monitor  and  Merri- 

mac,  464 
Battle  fought  with  torpedoes,  471 
Bell,  Henry,  277 
Berdan  guns,  473 
Berdan  torpedo,  487 
Berth,  Self-levelling,  383,  448 
Blasco  de  Gary,  73 
Bliven  Perry,  446 
Boats  run  by  pendulums,  123 
Boats,  Submarine,  476 
Boston,  Steam  navigation  at,  273 


Boston  and  Savannah  S.  S.  Co.,  381 

Bounties,  French,  to  steamships,  374 

Brazil  Line,  383 

Brazil,  Navy  of,  490 

Brazil,  Trade  with  375 

Bremen  Line,  364^  ^J^^'j 

Bridgeman,  Rev.  E.  C,  313 

Bridgewater,  Duke  of,  16 

British  and  American  S.  N.  Co.,  333 

British  and  American  Royal  Mail 

Steam  Packet  Company,  341 
British  India  S.  N.  Co.,  429 
British  negotiations  with  Fulton,  47 
Broad-horns,  218 
Brunei,  Isambert,  337 
Building  the  Clermont,  100 
Burial-place  of  Fulton,  167 
Burns  and  Maclver,  341 
Bushnell's  diving-boat,  44 

C 

Cable  steamships,  443 
California,  Inland  steam  navigation 
in,  244 

California,  Steam  navigation  on  coast 
of,  238 

Canal-boats  invented  by  Fulton,  32 
Canal  navigation.  Treatise  on,  by 

Fulton,  20 
Canal,  Erie,  29 
Canal,  Shrewsbury,  30 
Canals,  Advantages  of,  23 
Cannon  fired  under  water,  60 
Caspian  Sea,  Oil  steamers  on,  455 
Castlereagh,  Lord,  Letter  to,  50 
Chancellor  Livingston,  90 
China,  Steam  navigation  in,  314 
China,  Yirst  steamers  in,  313 
China,  Torpedo  boats  in,  496 


500 


ROBERT  FULTOIV. 


China,  Battle  with  torpedoes  in,  471 
China  Merchants'  S.  N.  Co.,  316 
China  and  Australia,   German  line 
to,  427 

Chinese  str.,  First,  to  America,  250 

Chinese  str.,  First,  to  London,  252 

Cigar  steamship,  446 

Claim  for  relief,  by  Fulton's  heirs,  161 

Clermont,  The,  100 

Clinton,  DeWitt,  eulogy  of  Fulton, 

165 

Clyde,  First  steamboat  on,  277 

Collier  First  steam,  296 

Collins,  Edward  K.,  366 

Collins  Line,  366 

Colt,  Col.  Samuel,  65 

Conipagnie    dcs  Messageries  Mai^i- 

tinies^  427 
Compaguie  Genemie  Transailantique, 

400 

Company  :  Boston  and  Savannah  S. 
S.,  381  ;  British  and  American 
Royal  Mail  S.  P.,  341  ;  British 
and  American  S.  N.,  333  ;  Brit- 
ish India  S.  N.,  429  ;  China  Mer- 
chants S.  N.,  316  ;  Collins  S.  S., 
370;  Dublin  S.  P.,  299;  Florio- 
Rubattino,  428  ;  Galway  S.  S., 
370;  Great  Western  S.  N.,  337  ; 
Hamburg-American,  392  ;  Liver- 
pool and  Great  Western  S.  S., 
415  ;  Liverpool,  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  S.  S.,  384  ;  New 
York  and  Cuba  Mail  S.  S.,  382  ; 
New  York,  Havana,  and  Mexican 
Mail  S.  S.,  381  ;  Occidental  and 
Oriental  S.  S.,  249  ;  Ocean  vS. 
N.,  363  ;  Ocean  S.  S.,  382  ;  Old 
Dominion  S.  S.,  382  ;  Pacific  Mail 
S.  S.,  372  ;  Peninsular  and  Ori- 
ental, 424  ;  Royal  Exchange  Ship- 
ping, 422  ;  Russian  of  Navigation 
and  Commerce,  428.  {See  Lillet) 

Compound  engine,  409 

Concave  lines  of  ship-builders,  410 

Connecticut,  Laws  of,  against  Fulton 
and  Livingston,  256 

Count  d'Auxiron's  experiment,  74 

Cromwell's  Line,  382 

Cruisers,  Torpedo,  494 

Cunard  Line,  341,  352 

Cunard,  Samuel,  340,  358 


D 

Death  of  Fulton,  157 
Defensive  torpedoes,  62,  470 
Description  of  Hudson  River  steam- 
boats, 183 
Description  of  a  Mississippi  steam- 
boat, 226 
DeWitt  Clinton's  eulogy  of  Fulton, 

165 

Dingley,  Hon.  Nelson,  378 

Diving-boat,  Experiments  with,  40 

Dome  steamboat,  446 

Dominion  Line,  423 

Dorothea  blown  up,  49 

Double-hull  steamers,  448 

Dredging  machine,  32 

Dublin  vSteam  Packet  Company,  299 

Dublin  to  Liverpool,  298 

Duke  of  Bridgewater,  16 

Dutch  Line  to  Java,  428 

E 

Earl  Stanhope,  16 
Pearly  steamboats  in  France,  290 
Early  steamboats  at  Liverpool,  292 
Early  steamboats  in  Russia,  290 
Early  steamboat  in  Java,  288 
Early  steamboats  in  Great  Britain, 275 
Early  navigation  of  the  Hudson,  128 
Early  navigation  of  Mississippi,  213 
Earthquakes  of  181 1,  205 
East  River  ferry-boats,  132 
Electricity,  steering  by,  456 
Engine,  Compound,  409 
Engine,  Oscillating,  406 
Engine,  Side-lever,  237 
Engine,  Improvements  in,  406 
Engine,  Watt's.  405 
Engines  of  Clermont  ordered,  97 
England  to  India,  First  steam  voy- 
age from,  310 
England,  Present  naval  vessels  of, 
493 

English  protection  to  steam  naviga- 
tion, 372 
Ericsson,  John,  345 
Erie  Canal,  29 

Erie  Lake,  First  steamboat  on,  235 
Evans,  Oliver,  191 
Experimental  steamboats,  71 


INDEX. 


501 


Experiments  in  steam  navigation 
previous  to  Fulton,  72 

F 

Fairbairn,  W.m.,  351 

Falls  of  the  Ohio,  First  steamboat 

through,  204 
Fastest  steamboat,  452 
Feathering  paddle-wheel,  413 
Ferry-boat,  Largest,  in  the  world, 

247 

Ferry-boats  on  the  East  River,  132 
Fires  on  Western  steamboats,  210 
Pairing  cannon  under  water,  60 
First  steamboat  on  the  Hudson,  100 
First  steamship  around  the  world,  254 
First  battle  of  iron-clads,  464 
First  steamers  in  China,  313 
First  steamboat  in  Siberia,  291 
First  steamer  in  India,  309 
First  steamers  in  Asia,  309 
First  steam  tow-boat,  293 
Fish  torpedoes,  67 
Fitch,  John,  77 

Flat-boat  journey  down  the  Missis- 
sippi, 193 

Plat-boats,  keel-boats,  barges,  and 
rafts,  213 

Flax-spinner,  32 

Florio-Rubattino  Co.,  428 

France,  Early  steamboats  in,  290 

France,  Navy  of,  491 

France,  Steam  navigation  in,  306 

Franklin,  Dr.,  83 

Freeland,  H.,  letter  from,  no 

P'rench  bounties  to  steamships,  374 

French  mail  lines,  400,  427 

Fuel,  Petroleum,  for  steamboats,  454 

FuLTOv,  Robert  ;  parentage  and 
birth,  I  ;  education,  2  ;  anecdotes 
of  school-days,  3  ;  experiments 
with  rockets,  4  ;  first  trial  of 
paddle-wheels,  6  ;  Hrst  drawings, 

9  ;  studying  art  and  leaving  home, 

10  ;  ])uys  farm  for  his  mother,  11  ; 
goes  to  Europe,  15  ;  accjuaintance 
with  West,  17  ;  publishes  treatise 
on  canals,  20  ;  letter  about  canals, 
23  ;  connection  with  P>ie  C'anal, 
28  ;  on  canal  bridge  at  Eong, 
30  ;    his  various  inventions,  32  ; 


Fulton,  Robert — Continued, 
loss  of  drawings  and  papers,  33  ; 
goes  to  Paris,  35  ;  first  trial  of 
torpedoes,  35  ;  paints  a  panorama, 
37  ;  letter  to  French  Directory, 
37  ;  invents  plunging  boat,  40 ; 
returns  to  England,  47  ;  interview 
with  Pitt  and  Melville,  48  ;  blows 
up  the  Dorothea,  49  ;  returns  to 
America,  56;  torpedo  experiments 
at  New  York,  56  ;  firing  guns  un- 
der water,  60 ;  lettter  to  Earl 
Stanhope,  72  ;  acquaintance  with 
Chancellor  Livingston,  93  ;  steam- 
boat on  the  Seine,  94  ;  planning 
and  building  the  Clermont,  100  ; 
trial  trip,  106  ;  first  voyage  to  Al- 
bany, 107  ;  letter  to  Chancellor 
Livingston,  114  ;  involved  in  liti- 
gation, 121  ;  builds  other  boats, 
129  ;  letter  about  steam  ferry- 
boats, 134  ;  designs  and  builds  war 
steamer,  142  ;  illness  and  death, 
147  ;  design  for  submarine  boat 
"  Mute,"  155  ;  funeral,  158  ;  eulo- 
gies, 164  ;  burial-place,  167 

G 

Galway  S.  S,  Co.,  370 
Gardner  guns,  473 
Catling  guns,  473 

German  line  to  China  and  Australia, 
427 

Germany,  Navy  of,  492 
Ciibbons  line  of  steamboats,  176 
Glasgow,  Steamboats  at,  277 
(iou bet's  submarine  boat,  480 
Gouverneur  Morris,  eulogy  of  Fulton, 
166 

(irave  of  P'ulton,  167 

Great  Britain,  Pearly  steand:)oats  in. 

275  _ 
Cireat  Britain,  vSteam  navigation  in, 

307 

(ireat  P^astern  steamship,  434 
Great  Western  S.  S.  Co.,  337 
Greyhounds  of  the  Atlantic,  415 
(iriffin,  Lieut.  Eugene,  468 
(iuion  Line,  415 

(iun])oats,  Mississip):)i  River,  463 
Guns,  Machine,  473 


502  ROBERT 
H 

Hamburg  American  Packet  Co.,  392 
Henderson  Brothers,  397 
Henry's,  William,  experiment,  74 
Hill,  Rowland,  286 
Holland,  Line  to  Java,  428 
Horse-boats,  135 
Hotchkiss  guns,  473 
Hudson  River,  Steamboating  on,  182 
Huston's   self-levelling  berth,  383, 
448 

Hulls,  Jonathan,  73 
I 

Improvements  in  steam-engine,  406 
India,  first  steamer  in,  309 
Inman,  Ernest  S.,  386 
Inman,  William,  384 
Inman  Line,  384 
Iron-clads,  460 
Iron  steamships,  345 
Italy,  Navy  of,  391 

J 

Japan,  Steamers  in,  317 
Japanese  navy,  489 
Java,  First  steamboat  in,  288 
Jouffroy,  Marquis  de,  74 

K 

Kennebec,  vSteam  on  the,  270 
Keel-boats,  barges,   flat-boats,  and 
rafts,  213 

L 

Lakes,  American,  First  steamboats 

on,  235 
Lardner,  Dr.,  328 

Lardner's  Description  of  Hudson 
River  steamboats,  183 

Laws,  Navigation,  380 

Lengthening  of  ships,  410 

Line  :  Alexandre,  382  ;  Allen,  423  ; 
Anchor,  397  ;  Brazil,  383  ;  Bre- 
men, 364,  393  ;  Collins,  366  ; 
Cromwell's,  382  ;  Cunard,  341, 
352  ;  Dominion,  423  ;   Dutch,  to 


FULTON. 

Line — Continued. 

Java,  428  ;  French  Mail,  400,  427; 
German,  to  Asia,  427  ;  Gibbons, 
176  ;  Guion,  415  ;  Hamburg,  392  ; 
Inman,  384  ;  Mallory,  381  ;  Mon- 
arch, 422  ;  Morgan's,  382  ;  Na- 
tional, 402  ;  N.  Y.  and  Havre, 
363  ;  Ohio  River,  U.  S.  Mail,  230; 
P.  and  O.,  424  ;  Red  D,"  382  ; 
Red  Star,  421  ;  Rotterdam,  422  ; 
State,  422  ;  Thingvalla,  422  ; 
Ward's,  382  ;  Warren  (Boston), 
423  ;  White  Star,  419  ;  Wilson, 
422.    {See     Company.'" ) 

Lines  :  to  Africa,  430  ;  to  South 
America,  430  ;  between  Europe 
and  Asia,  429 

Liquid  fuel,  454 

Litigation  about  navigating  the  Hud- 
son, 121 

Liverpool  to  Dublin,  298 

Liverpool  and  Great  Western  S.  S. 
Co.,  415 

Liverpool,  Early  steamboats  at,  292 
Liverpool,  N.  Y..  and  Phila.  S.  S. 
Co.,  384 

Livingston,  Robert  R.,  (Chancellor) 
90 

Lloyds,  Austrian,  428 
Lloyds,  North  German,  393 
London,  Steamboats  at,  284 
Long  Island  Sound,   Steamers  on, 
256 

Longstreet,  William,  82 

Lord  Castlereagh,  Letter  to,  50 

Lundborg,  Captain,  447 

M 

Machine  guns,  473 
Machine  for  spinning  flax,  32 
Maine,  Steam  in,  270 
Mallory  Line,  381 
Marine  screw,  348 

Massachusetts,  Steam  navigation  in, 
273 

Maxim  guns,  473 
Merrimac  and  Monitor,  464 
Messageries  Maritimes,  427 
Michigan,  Lake,  First  steamboat  on, 
236 

Mike  Fink,  216 


INDEX. 


Mill  for  sawing  marble,  32 
Miller,  Taylor,  &  Symington,  86 
Mississippi   steamboat.  Description 
of,  226 

Missouri,  First  Ascent  of,  by  steam- 
boats, 230 

Morey,  Samuel,  83 

Morgan's  Line,  382 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  eulogy  of  Ful- 
ton, 166 

Morse,  Joseph  W.,  446 

Mute,  155 

N 

Napier,  David,  303 

Narragansett  Bay,  Steam  navigation 

on,  263 
National  Line,  402 
Nautilus,  155 
Naval  steamers,  458 
Naval  vessels  of  recent  construction, 

489 

Navies  of  the  world,  469 

Navigation  laws,  380 

Navigation    of    Mississippi  before 

steamboats,  213 
Newcastle,  Steam  towing  at,  295 
New  York  and  Cuba  Mail  S.  S.  Co., 

382 

New  York  and  Havre  line,  363 
New  York,   Havana,  and  Mexican 

Mail  S.  S.  Co.,  381 
Nordenfeldt  guns,  473 
Nordenfeldt  submarine  boat,  476 
North  German  Lloyds,  393 
Number  of  steamers  in  Pacific  coast 

waters  of  U.  S.,  246 
Number  of  steamboats  on  Western 

rivers,  225,  236 

O 

Occidental  and  Oriental  Steamship 

Co.,  249 
Ocean  S.  N.  Co.,  363 
Ocean  tramps,  430 
Ocean  voyage,  First,  of  a  steamer, 

170 

Offensive  torpedoes,  62,  470 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  Exam- 
ination of,  193 


Old  Dominion  S.  S.  Co.,  382 
Oldest  existing  steamboat,  287 
Oldest  steamboat   company  in  the 

world,  230 
Ontario,  Lake,  First  steamboat  on, 

235 

Ormsbee,  Elijah,  82 
Oscillating  engine,  406 
Overland  mail  route  from  England 
to  India,  312 

P 

Pacific  Mail  S.  S.  Co.,  240,  372 

Pacific  Ocean,  Steam  navigation  on 
coast  of,  239 

Pacific  Ocean,  War  steamers  in,  252 

Packets,  Passenger,  on  Long  Island 
Sound,  262 

Paddle-wheels,  Fulton's  first  experi- 
ment with,  8 

Paddle-wheel,  feathering,  413 

Paddles  versus  screws,  349 

Papin's  experiment,  73 

Passengers,  Steerage,  First,  by 
steamers,  384 

Pendulum  boats,  123 

Peninsular  and  Oriental  S.  N.  Co., 
424 

Perkins,  Loftus,  444 
Perpetual-motion  fraud,  161 
Perry,  William,  Letter  from,  115 
Personal  appearance  of  Fulton,  163 
Petroleum,  fuel  for  steamboats,  454 
Price,  Joseph,  294 

Protection,  English,  to  steam  navi- 
gation, 372 

Protection,  French,  to  steam  navi- 
gation, 374 

R 

Racing  on  Western  steamboats,  221 
Rafts,    keel-boats,    flat-boats,  and 

barges,  213 
Recent  naval  vessels,  489 
Red  "  D  "  Line,  382 
Red  River  raft,  229 
Red  Star  Line,  421 
Reed,  Nathan,  81 

Retaliation  of  Connecticut  against 
Fulton  and  Livingston,  256 


504  ROBERT  FULTON. 


Roach,  John,  375 
Roberts,  Marshall  O.,  239 
Rogers,  Moses,  321 
Rogers,  Stephen,  321 
Roosevelt,  Nicholas  J.,  84,  193 
Rotterdam  Line,  422 
Royal  Exchange  Shipping  Co.,  422 
Rumsey,  James,  77 
Prussia,  Early  steamboats  in,  290 
Russian  Company  of  Navigation  and 
Commerce,  428 

S 

Sawing  marble.  Mill  for,  32 
Sawyers  and  snags,  228 
Screw,  Marine,  348 
Screw  str..  First,  on  Lake  P>ie,  236 
Screw  steamships,  345 
Screw  versus  paddles,  349 
Seacoast  def^^'^.ces,  Lieut.  Grilhn,  on, 
|6G 

Seine,  Experiment  upon,  with  steam- 
boat, 94 
Self-levelling  berth,  383,  448 
Shepard,  I.  F.,  316 
Ships,  Lengthening  of,  410 
Shreve, Captain  H.  M.,  220,  229,  233 
Shrewsbury  Canal,  30 
Siberia,  First  steamboat  in,  291 
Side-lever  engine,  237 
Sloo,  A.  G.,  239 

Smallest  transatlantic  steamer,  444 

Smith,  Dr.  Junius,  332 

Smith,  Francis  P.,  348 

Snag-boats,  220,  229 

South  America,  Lines  to,  430 

Spar  torpedoes,  66 

St.  Lawrence,  Steamboats  on,  288 

Stanhope,  Earl,  16 

State  Line,  422 

Steam   gunboats,   P^irst,    in  British 

Navy,  154 
Steam  navigation  previous  to  Fulton, 

73 

Steam  tonnage  of  the  world,  431 

Steam  Vessels  Named  in  this 
Volume. 

i^See  "  Cojiipany^^  and  ''Line.''') 
Aaron  Manby,  351  ;  Acadia,  342  ; 

Acheron,  491  ;  Accommodation, 


wSteart.  Vessels — Continued. 

288  ;  Adriatic  (Am.),  370  ;  Adria 
tic  (Br.),  420  ;  Africa,  345  ;  Alaska, 
415;  Albany,  132,  181;  Alex- 
andrine, 492  ;  Algeria,  422  ;  Alida, 
132,  183,  189  ;  Alpha,  270  ;  Ameri- 
ca (Am.),  243  ;  America  (Cunard), 
345  ;  America,  (National),  404  ; 
Amerique,  400  ;  Anchoria,  399  ; 
Anna,  361  ;  Anthracite,  444;  Ara- 
bic, 420  ;  Arago,  364  ;  Archer, 
494  ;  Archimedes,  348  ;  Arcona, 
492  ;  Arctic,  369  ;  Argo,  254  ; 
Argyle,  284  ;  Arizona,  415  ;  Asia, 
345,  411  ;  Atahuallpa,  466  ;  At- 
lantic, 367  ;  Australia,  494  ;  Bal- 
tic (Br.),  420  ;  Baltic  (Am.),  370  ; 
Baltic  (lake  steamer),  238  ;  Ban- 
gor, 362  ;  Bavaria,  392  ;  Bay  State, 
182  ;  Belgic,  420  ;  Belgravia,  399  ; 
Belle  of  the  West,  224  ;  Belle  Key, 
224  ;  Benbow,  493;  Bessemer,  448  ; 
Black  Prince,  462;  Bosphorus,  423; 
Bothnia,  354;  Bourgogne,  400;  Bo- 
russia,  392  ;  Bostona,  224  ;  Bolivia, 
399  ;  Bretagne,  400  ;  Britannis 
(boat),  283;  Britannia  (s.s.),  342, 
411  ;  Britannic,  420;  Bristol,  263; 
British  Queen,  334  ;  Brisk,  494  ; 
Buffalo,  138  ;  Calais-Douvres,  448  ; 
California  (Am.),  240,  248  ;  Cali- 
fornia (Br.),  399  ;  Caledonia  (boat), 
284  ;  Caledonia  (s.s  ),  342  ;  Cam- 
den, 136  ;  Cambria,  345  ;  Canada 
(Br.),  345,  403  ;  Canada  (Fr  ),  400  ; 
Car  of  Neptune,  129,  182  ;  Cas- 
talia,  448  ;  Catawba,  466  ;  Celtic, 
420  ;  Champagne,  400  ;  Chancel- 
lor Livingston,  140,  178,  182  ; 
Charlotte,  293  ;  Charlotte  Dundas, 
87,  94  ;  Chauncey  Vibard,  132  ; 
China,  243  ;  Chrysopolis,  189  ; 
Cimbria,  393  ;  Circassia,  399  ; 
City  of  Peking,  243  ;  City  of  New 
York  (Am.),  243  ;  City  of  Tokio, 
243  ;  City  of  Boston,  361  ;  City  of 
Augusta,  382  ;  City  of  Baltimore, 
3S8  ;  City  of  Rome,  388,  411; 
City  of  Montreal,  3S8  ;  City  of 
Glasgow.  361,  384;  City  of  Wash- 
ington, 382  ;  City  of  Alexandria, 
382  ;  City  of  Berlin,  388,  411  ;  City 


INDEX. 


Steam  Vessels — Continued. 

of  Bristol,  388,  411  ;  City  of  Brus- 
sels, 388  ;  City  of  Manchester, 
385  ;  City  of  New  York  (Br.) 
388  ;  Clermont,  100  ;  Clyde,  282  ; 
Colombo,  361;  Columbia,  240, 
342,  361  ;  Colorado,  415  ;  Comet, 
278;  Comet  (Br.  gunboat),  154; 
Commander,  361  ;  Condor,  491  ; 
Connaught,  299;  Connecticut,  183, 
258  ;  Copia,  361  ;  Coptic,  420  ; 
Cossack,  494  ;  Cura9oa,  330  ;  Da- 
kota, 415  ;  Daniel  Drew,  132  ; 
Defence,  462  ;  Delaware,  423  ; 
Demologos,  144  :  Denmark,  403  ; 
Devonia,  399  ;  DeWitt  Clinton, 
182  ;  Diana,  310  ;  Donau,  396  ; 
Driver,  255  ;  Duke  of  Orleans, 
224  ;  Dumbarton  Castle,  283  ; 
Durley,  361  ;  Eagle,  274  ;  Eclipse 
(American),  221,  224  ;  Eclipse 
(English),  294  ;  Edward  Everett, 
Junior,  245  ;  Edward  Shippen, 
224  ;  Egypt,  403  ;  Eider,  396  ; 
Elbe,  396  ;  Elizabeth,  280  ;  Ems, 
396 ;  Emperor  Nicholas,  292  ; 
Emperor  of  Russia,  143  ;  Em- 
pire State,  182  ;  Empress,  224  ; 
England,  403;  Enterprise,  219, 
224,  310;  Erin,  402;  Esme- 
ralda, 491  ;  Etna  (boat),  292  ; 
Etna,  137,  211,  345  ;  Etruria, 
354,  455  ;  Europa,  345  ;  Fal- 
con, 239,  310  ;  Faraday,  443  ; 
Fearless,  494  ;  P'inance,  383  ; 
Firefly  (pass,  boat),  261  ;  Fire- 
fly (ferry-boat),  133  ;  Fire-Dart, 
315  ;  Forbes,  313  ;  "  Forty 
Thieves,"  431  ;  Fo-Shune,  313  ; 
France,  400  ;  Francis  B.  Ogden, 
346  ;  Francis  Skiddy,  132  ;  Frank- 
lin, 363  ;  Fremont,  240  ;  Frisia, 
393  ;  Fulda,  396  ;  Fulton  The 
First,  146,  149  ;  FuUon  (boat), 
136,  138,  256  ;  Fulton  (ship),  364  ; 
Fulton's  boat  of  1803,  94  ;  Ful- 
ton Second,  459  ;  Fulton  Third, 
459  ;  Furnessia,  399  ;  Gaelic,  420; 
Galatea,  494  ;  Gascogne,  400  ; 
Gen.  Brown,  224  ;  Cieorgia,  239  ; 
Germania,  392  ;  Germanic,  420; 
Giovanni  Bausan,  491  ;  Gorgon, 


Steam  Vessels — Continued. 

307  ;  Golden  Age,  240,  252  ; 
Golden  Gate,  240  ;  Great  East- 
ern, 434  ;  Great  Britain,  359  ; 
Great  Liverpool,  340,  425  ;  Great 
Republic,  243;  Great  Western,  331, 
337  ;  Greece,  403  ;  Gloire,  462  ; 
Hammonia,  392  ;  Hendrick  Hud- 
son, 182  ;  Helvetia,  402  ;  Herman 
Ludwig,  361  ;  Hermann,  363  ; 
Hibernia,  345  ;  Hochung,  250  ; 
Holsatia,  393  ;  Homer,  361  ; 
Hooper,  444  ;  Hugh  Lindsay, 
311  ;  Humboldt,  363  ;  Iberia,  425  ; 
Idaho,  415  ;  Illinois,  239  ;  Inez 
de  Castro,  397  ;  Industry,  287  ; 
Inflexible,  493  ;  Ireland,  299  ; 
Iron  Witch,  238  ;  Isaac  Newton, 
182  ;  Ismailia,  361,  398  ;  Japan, 
243  ;  Jardine,  313  ;  Java,  -}22  ; 
John  Bell,  397  ;  John  L.  Stephens, 
240  ;  Jura,  345  ;  Kennebec,  271  ; 
King  Coal,  297  ;  King  Philip, 
231  ;  Labrador,  400  ;  Lafayette, 
400  ;  Lady  Sherbrooke,  306  ; 
Leinster,  299  ;  Lexington,  232  ; 
Lightning,  154  ;  Liverpool,  339  ; 
Louisiana,  402  ;  Main,  396  ;  Man- 
hattan, 415  ;  Majestic,  293;  Manco 
Capac,  466  ;  Margary,  284  ;  Mar- 
mora, 362  ;  Massachusetts,  273, 
361  ;  Mary  Church,  361  ;  Mary 
Powell,  189,  452  ;  Meefoo,  252  ; 
Meteor,  311,  446  ;  Meteor,  154  ; 
Merrimac,  463  ;  Merrimack,  3S3  ; 
Mexican,  361  ;  Miantonomah, 
466  ;  Midas,  314  ;  Milan,  492  ; 
Minnesota,  415  ;  Mississippi  River 
gunboats,  463  ;  Mint,  245  ;  Mina 
Thomas,  361 ;  Minia,  444;  Monad- 
nock,  466  ;  Monarch,  306  ;  Mon- 
arch (Grecian,  Persian,  Lydian, 
etc.),  422  ;  Monitor,  463  ;  Mono- 
cacy,  315  ;  Montana,  415  ;  Mosel, 
396  ;  Munstcr,  299  ;  Naniwa-Kan, 
489  ;  Narcissus,  494  ;  Nassau, 
137  ;  Natchez,  (old),  138  (new), 
224  ;  Nebraska,  415  ;  Nevada, 
415  ;  Newport,  383  ;  Newton- 
Common,  276  ;  New  Orleans,  137, 
196,  197  ;  New  World.  183,  248  ; 
Normandic,  400  ;  North  America, 


5o6 


ROBERT  FULTON. 


Steam  Vessels — Continued. 

132,  181,  182  ;  Northerner,  240  ; 
Oceanic,  419  ;  Oder,  396  ;  Ohio, 

239  ;  Oldenberg,  493  ;  Omega, 
271  ;  Oneonta,  466  ;  Ontario,  235  ; 
Oregon  (boat),  182  ;  Oregon 
(Am.),  240  ;  Oregon  (Br.),  357, 
415  ;  Oriental,  425  ;  Orlando, 
494  ;  Oruktor  Amphibolis,  191  ; 
Ozark,  234  ;  Pacific,  361,  368  ; 
Palos,  454  ;  Panama,  240  ;  Para- 
gon, 130,  182  ;  Patent,  272  ; 
Pennland,  422  ;  Pennsylvania, 
402  ;  Pereire,  400  ;  Persia,  352, 
411  ;  Phcenix,  170  ;  Pilgrim,  263  ; 
Pittsburg,  201  ;  Polyphemus,  494  ; 
Pommerania,  393  ;  Pomone,  348  ; 
Porpoise,  494  ;  Post  Boy,  305  ; 
President,  3O0  ;  Princeton,  347  ; 
Piopontus,  423  ;  Queen,  402  ; 
Queen  (Br.  gunboat),  462  ;  Ran- 
dolph, 224  ;  Rapid,  291  ;  Rari- 
tan,  131  ;  Rattler,  348  ;  R.  E. 
Lee,  189  ;  Rechid,  361  ;  Rein- 
deer, 224  ;  Renown,  493  ;  Re- 
public, 240,  420  ;  Rhein,  396  ; 
Rhode  Island,  257  ;  Rhodaman- 
thus,  331  ;  Richmond,  136  ;  Rob- 
ert Bruce,  283  ;   Rob  Roy,  283, 

304  ;  Rochester,  182  ;  Royal  Wil- 
liam, 330  ;  Royal  Tar,  425  ;  Rus- 
sia, 411,  422  ;  San  Rafael,  248  ; 
Saint  Theodosius,  315  ;  St.  Louis, 

240  ;  St.  Laurent,  400  ;  Sans- 
pereil,  493  ;  Savannah,  318  ; 
Saxonia,  392  ;  Scotia,  353  ;  Scout, 
494  ;  Sea-gull,  459  ;  Senator,  244, 
245  ;  Shannon,  361  ;  Shelby,  224  ; 
Shotwell,  221,  224  ;  Silesia,  393  ; 
Sirius,  331,  337  ;  Snake,  309  ; 
Soho,  306  ;  Solano,  247,  248  ; 
Sonora,  240  ;  South  America,  132, 
189  ;  Spain,  403  ;  Spark,  304  ; 
Stamfordliam,  361  ;  Stevens'  Bat- 
tery, 175  ;  Stiletto,  451  ;  Stone- 
wall, 317  ;  Suevia,  393  ;  Sultana, 
224;  Swallow,  182;  Swiftsure,  288; 
Takachiho-Kan,    489  ;  Talbot, 

305  ;  Tartar,  494  ;  Tecumseh, 
224  ;  Tempest,  361,  397  ;  Tennes- 
see, 240  ;  Teutonia,  392  ;  Thames, 
285  ;    Thuringia,   393  ;  Tobago, 


Steam  Vessels — Continued. 

240  ;  Trojan,  361  ;  Tuscarora, 
224  ;  Ulster,  299  ;  Umbria,  354  ; 
Undaunted,  494  ;  Unicorn,  342  ; 
United  Kingdom  (early  steamer), 
305  ;  United  Kingdom  (Br.),  361, 
398  ;  Utica,  182  ;  Vanderbilt, 
183  ;  Van  der  Capellan,  288  ; 
Vesuvius,  137,  211  ;  Ville  de 
Paris,  400  ;  Virginia,  402  ;  Waes- 
land,  422  ;  Walk-in-the- Water, 
235  ;  Warrior,  462  ;  Washington 
(Am.),  136,  224,  363  ;  Washing- 
ton (Fr.),  400  ;  Waterloo,  298  ; 
Werra,  396  ;  Weser,  396  ;  West- 
phalia, 393  ;  Wilson  G.  Hunt, 
248  -;  Wisconsin,  415  ;  York,  133  ; 
Zanzibar,  361  ;  Zeeland,  422 

vSteam  vessels.  Experimental,  71 

Steam  voyage.  First,  from  England 
to  India,  310 

Steam  whistles  introduced  and  used, 
231 

Steamboat,  **  All-wheel,"  451 
Steamboat  built  at  Pittsburgh,  196 
Steamboat,  Fastest,  in  world,  452 
Steamboat,  First,  on  Western  waters 
190 

Steamboat,  Oldest  existing,  287 
Steamboat  racing,  221 
Steamboating  on  Hudson  River,  182 
Steamboating  on  Western  rivers,  190 
Steamboats  built  by  Fulton,  127 
Steamboats,  First,  on  the  Mississippi, 

Steamboats,  Early,  in  Great  Britain, 
275 

Steamer,  Double-hull,  448 

Steamers,  First  war,  458 

Steamers   disappeared   in  Atlantic 

Ocean,  360 
Steamers,  War,  in  Pacific  Ocean, 

252 

Steamship  Cigar,  446 
Steamship  Great  Eastern,  434 
Steamships,  Cable,  443 
Steamships,  Protection  and  bounties 

to,  372 
Steering-gear,  Steam,  456 
Steerage  passengers,  First  carried  by 

steamers,  384 
Stephens,  John,  97,  170-172 


INDEX. 


507 


Stephens,  Robert  L.,  172 
Stephens,  Edwin  A.,  175 
Stephens  Battery,  174 
Stockton,  Captain  R.  F.,  346  . 
Submarine  boats,  476 
Submarine  navigation,  40,  155 
Swift  passages  on  the  Hudson,  132 

T 

Taxation    of   steamship  property, 
372 

Tea   trains   from     San  Francisco, 
249 

Temperance    on    Sound  steamers, 
269 

Thingvalla  Line,  422 
Thomason's  fire-ship,  275 
Tonnage,  Steam,  of  the  world,  431 
Torpedo  boats,  470 
Torpedoes  in  actual  warfare,  471 
Torpedoes,  Fulton's,  35,  55-60 
Tow-boat,  First  steam,  293 
Tramp,  Ocean,  430 
Transatlantic  mails.  First  American, 
363 

Transatlantic  steamer,  Smallest,  444 
Transatlantic  steamers  disappeared 

at  sea,  360 
Transatlantic  voyages.  Second  and 

third,  330 
Treatise  on  canal  navigation,  20 
Trial  trip  of  the  Clermont,  106 
Trinity  churchyard,  167 
Tuck's  submarine  boat,  484 

U 

United  Kingdom,  Steam  navigation 
in,  305 


V 

Vanderbilt,    Cornelius,  Commo- 
dore "),  176 
Vessels,  Steam  ( See  *  *  Steam  Vessels  ") 
Voyage,  Remarkable,  of  "City  of 

New  York,"  243 
Voyage  of  the  Savannah,  320 
Voyage  of  first  steamboat  on  the 
Ohio,  198 

W 

Waghorn,  Lieutenant,  312 
Ward's  Line,  382 
Warren  Line,  423 
War  steamer.  First,  in  world,  142 
War  steamer.  First  screw-propelled, 
347 

War  steamers,  First,  in  iic^^n'es,  458 
War  steamers  in  Pacific  Ocean,  252 
Watt's  engine,  405 
Webb,  W.  H.,  240,  262 
West,  Benjamin,  10,  18,  20 
Western  rivers.  Early  navigation  of, 
213 

Western  rivers,   Steamboating  on, 
190 

Western  waters.  Number  of  steam- 
boats on,  225 
White  Star  Line,  419 
Will  and  testament  of  Fulton,  160 
Wilson  Line,  422 
Winans,  Ross,  446 
World,  Navies  of  the,  469 
World,  Steam  tonnage  of  the,  431 

Y 

Yang-tse-Kiang,  Steam  on,  315 
Yokohama,  San  Francisco  to,  249 


Heroes  of  the  Nations. 

EDITED  BY 

EVELYN  ABBOTT,  M.A., 
Fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 


A  Series  of  biographical  studies  of  the  lives  and  work 
of  a  number  of  representative  historical  characters  about 
whom  have  gathered  the  great  traditions  of  the  Nations 
to  which  they  belonged,  and  who  have  been  accepted,  in 
many  instances,  as  types  of  the  several  National  ideals. 
With  the  life  of  each  typical  character  will  be  presented 
a  picture  of  the  National  conditions  surrounding  him 
during  his  career. 

The  narratives  are  the  work  of  writers  who  are  recog- 
nized authorities  on  their  several  subjects,  and,  while 
thoroughly  trustworthy  as  history,  will  present  picturesque 
and  dramatic  stories  of  the  Men  and  of  the  events  con- 
nected with  them. 

To  the  Life  of  each  "  Hero  will  be  given  one  duo- 
decimo volume,  handsomely  printed  in  large  type,  pro- 
vided with  maps  and  adequately  illustrated  according  to 
the  special  requirements  of  the  several  subjects.  The 
volumes  will  be  sold  separately  as  follows : 


Large  12°,  cloth  extra  $1  50 

Half  morocco,  uncut  edges,  gilt  top     •       •       .      I  75 


HEROES  OF  THE  NATIONS. 


A  series  of  biographical  studies  of  the  lives  and  work  of 
certain  representative  historical  characters,  about  whom  have 
gathered  the  great  traditions  of  the  Nations  to  which  they 
belonged,  and  who  have  been  accepted,  in  many  instances,  as 
types  of  the  several  National  ideals. 

The  volumes  will  be  sold  separately  as  follows  :  cloth  extn. 
$1.50  ;  half  leather,  uncut  edges,  gilt  top,  $1.75. 

The  following  are  now  ready  : 


NELSON.    By  W.  Clark  Russell. 
GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     By  C. 

R.  L.  Fletcher. 
PERICLES.    By  Evelyn  Abbott. 
THEODORIC  THE  GOTH.  By 

Thomas  Hodgkin. 
SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY.    By.  H.  R. 

Fox-Bourne. 
JULIUS  CiESAR.     By  W.  Warde 

Fowler. 

WYCLIF.    By  Lewis  Sergeant. 
NAPOLEON.  By  W.  O'Connor  Mor- 
ris. 

HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.  By  P.  F. 
Willert. 

CICERO.  By  J.  L.  Strachan-David- 
son. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  By  Noah 
Brooks. 

PRINCE  HENRY  (OF  PORTUGAL) 
THE  NAVIGATOR.  By  C.  R. 
Beazley. 

JULIAN  THE  PHILOSOPHER. 
By  Alice  Gardner. 

LOUIS  XIV.    By  Arthur  Hassall. 

CHARLES  XII.    By  R.  Nisbet  Bain. 

LORENZO  DE'  MEDICI.  By  Ed- 
ward Armstrong. 


JEANNE  D'ARC.  By  Mrs.  Oliphant. 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.  By 
Washington  Irving. 

ROBERT  THE  BRUCE.  By  S^r 
Herbert  Maxwell. 

HANNIBAL.  By  W.  O'Connor  Mor- 
ris. 

ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.    By  Willia 

Conant  Church. 
ROBERT  E.  LEE.    By  Henry  Aler 

ander  White. 
THE    CID  CAMPEADOR.     By  I 

Butler  Clarke. 
SAL  A  DIN.    By  Stanley  Lane-Pool ; 
BISMARCK.    By  J.  W.  Headlam. 
ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT.  } 

Benjamin  I.  Wheeler. 
CHARLEMAGl^E.     By  H.  W.  C 

Davis. 

OLIVER  CROMWELL.  By  Charles 
Firth. 

RICHELIEU.   By  James  B.  Perkins. 
DANIEL  O'CONNELL.    By  Robert 
Dunlop. 

SAINT  LOUIS  (Louis  IX.,  of  France). 

By  Frederick  Perry. 
LORD  CHATHAM.       By  Walford 

Davis  Green, 


Other  volumes  in  preparation  are  : 


MOLTKE.    By  Spencer  Wilkinson. 

JUDAS  MACCABEUS.  By  Israel 
Abrahams. 

HENRY  V.  By  Charles  L.  Kings- 
ford. 

SOBIESKI.    By  F.  A.  Pollard. 
ALFRED  THE  TRUTHTELLER. 
By  Frederick  Perry. 


FREDERICK  II.    By  A.  L.  Smith. 
MARLBOROUGH.     By  C.   W.  C. 
Oman. 

RICHARD  THE  LION-HJ^ARTED. 

By  T.  A.  Archer. 
WILLIAM  THE  SILENT.   By  Ruth 

Putnam. 

JUSTINIAN.    By  Edward  Jenks. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  Publishers,  New  York  and  London. 


